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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



PRIUMPHS OF GRACE, — FULTON STREET 
PRAYER MEETING. 



!IffiIST EVER ¥ITH TOTJ, 



BY 



REV. OCTAVIUS WINSLOW, D.D. 



ILLUSTRATED BY EXPERIENCES 



DRAWN FROM THE 



Iragjr Hwting, m)s i'uDi m^i f ffs^ital fife. 



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NE"W YORK: 
BOARO OF PUBLICATION 

OF THR 

REFORMED PROTESTANT DUTCH CHURCH, 

Synod's Rooms, No. 103 Fulton Street: 

18 6 3. 




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Entbked according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863, by 
REV. THOMAS C. STRONG, D.D. 

On behalf of the Board of Publication of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church In North 
America, in the Clerk's OflSce of the District Court of the United States 



for the Southern District of New York. 



Z J ^ ^ J' 



HOSFORD 4 KETCHAM, 

STATIONERS AND PRINTERS, 

57 and 59 William St., N. Y. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAP. PAGE. 

I. The Farewells 5 

IL Christ a Presence 22 

III. Christ a Guide 40 

IV. Christ a Shield 49 

V. Christ a Teacher 62 

VI. Christ a Saviour 71 

VII. Christ in Service 81 

VIII. Christ in Suffering 89 

IX. Christ in Retirement 95 

X. Christ in Bereavement 102 

XL Christ in Sickness 110 

XII. Christ in Temptation 119 

XIII. Christ in Adversity. ... 127 

XIV. Christ in Death 135 

(3) 



CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 



ILLUSTRATED BY EXPERIENCES 

FROM THB 

lultffn ^txnt ^xmx lifting. 



The writings of Rev. Octavius Winslow, D.D., are 
known and appreciated over the whole Christian world. 
The author is known to be highly gifted and thoroughly 
evangelical, and an able minister of the New Testament. 
The iittle work, " Christ is ever with You," was pub- 
lished at the beginning of this year, and in the first quar- 
ter of the year thirty-five thousand copies had been 
printed and circulated — a good proof of the appreciation 
of the work on the part of the Christian public. Tlie 
merits of the work justify the means we use to give it 
increased value and circulation. 

"We have broken the text of the author into chapters, 
and interspersed them with illustrations drawn from 
American Christian life. These experiences have been 
gathered from the Fulton Street Prayer Meetings and 
from the army and navy. We thus add a feature to the 
book which will make it more interesting and useful to 
the youth and children of our Sabbath schools, to the 
general reader, and to our noble and heroic men on ship 
and shore, who are engaged in the service of their coun- 
try. "We send this little volume forth with the prayer 
that it may be made the means of winning many souls to 
the love and service of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
Christ. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE FAREWELLS. 




^HERE were two farewells of our 
Lord on earth, and they formed two 
of the most touching and instructive 
epochs of His history. As the sun, 
setting amid a flood of liquid gold, 
invests the whole heavens with variegated 
tints of beauty long after the majestic orb 
has run its race, so there clustered around 
the two earthly sunsets of Christ the most 
divine assurances, the most precious promises, 
the most brilliant hopes that ever shed their 
light and glory upon the pathway of the 
Christian Church; and which will linger 
upon its spiritual sky in deathless splendor 

1* (5) 



6 CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 

until He come again in ELis glory to set no . 
more for ever. 

The first farewell of Christ was when He 
parted from His disciples on His return to 
heaven. To them it was a time of inexpressi- 
ble grief. To part with Christ was to part 
with their all. Yet He would not leave 
them comfortless; nor will He, beloved, 
ever so leave you. Blended witli His de- 
parture was the most precious promise and 
the most costly gift Heaven could bestow or 
the Church receive — the promise and gift 
of the Holy Ghost, as the Comfortei', Teacher, 
and In dweller of the Church \ '-^ If 1 depart^ 
I will send the Comforter P Wliat an hour 
of blessing was this! What a glorious setting 
of the Snn of righteousness! What spiritual 
benedictions, what resplendent hopes gather, 
like a glowing halo, around the sinking of 
this Divine Orb ! And still the glow lingers. 
And still the settino^ ravs tins^e with unfaded 



CHKIST EVER WITH YOU. 7 

light and glory the gloomy clouds which 
often drape in woe earth's pilgrimage. We 
have abiding with, and dwelling in, us the 
Holy Ghost the Comforter, sent of Christ, to 
lead us to Christ, to testify of Christ, to 
assimilate us to Christ, and to sanctify us to 
dwell Avitli Christ for ever. Oh, could the 
personal departure of our Lord have been 
blessed and graced with an assurance more 
transcendantly great, precious, and glorious 
than this? 

Our Lord's second farewell was when He 
closed the sacred canon of Scripture, fencing 
it with the most solemn warning, and sealing 
it with the most illustrious promise. And, 
as the threatening of woe to them who should 
either take from, or add to, the perfect Word 
of God, resounded solemnly on the ear, it 
was succeeded and softened by words which 
will live and linger in the sweetest cadence 
until the promise they contain shall be ful- 



8 CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 

filled: ''Behold^ I come quicMy T Then 
shall all that is dark in providence and grace, 
be lucid, and all that is discrepant be har- 
monized; the bliss of the saints will be com- 
plete, the mystery of God will be finished, 
and God will be all in all. O believer in 
Jesus! long for that day that shall bring the 
Beloved of your soul arrayed in all His 
Father's and Plis own glory. He will come 
quickly, suddenly, unexpectedly, — His ad- 
vent surprising both the Church and the 
world — the one slumbering in the light, and 
the other in the dark. But let us who are 
of the day be sober, watchful, hastening unto 
His coming, prepared as a bride for her 
husband — loving and desiring Him with a 
single, ardent, wakeful affection. ^^Come^ 
Lord Jesus^ come quicMy!'^^ 

But it was in connection with His first 
farewell that Christ spake the memorable 
and precious words — "Zt?, / am with you 



CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 9 

al'wayP It is not to a future, but to an 
ever-present Christ with His saints, that 
these pages will direct your thoughts. What 
the Lord has laid up for us, by what road 
He will lead us, what lessons He will teach 
us, by what discipline of trial He will 
mature us for present service and prepare us 
for future rest, we will not be too curious to 
divine. Enough that it is all in the covenant, 
and in His hands who administers the cove- 
nant. And whatever new lights and shadows 
may be pencilled upon life's picture, though 
our song be of mercy and of judgment^ we 
will patiently wait and calmly trust its 
gradual and timely unfolding, assured that 
allt)ur trials will be shrouded blessings, and 
all those blessings will be bright stepping- 
stones aiding our progress in the divine life, 
our nearness to God, and our meetness for 
heaven. Embarking upon a new stage of 
your pilgrimage, I propose placing the 



10 CHRIST EVER WITH YOTJ. 

pilgrim's true staff in your hands, upon 
which, if you lean in childlike faith, you will 
be firmly upheld, safely led, securely kept, 
divinely strengthened, cheered, and com- 
forted every step of your journey. It was 
left by our Lord for the use of His one and 
whole Church, when He exchaijged the 
scene of His humiliation for the throne of 
His glory. He himself placed it in the 
hands of His apostles, who, now that their 
pilgrimage is closed, have transmitted it to 
us. In the name of Christ, I now put this 
divine staff in your hand, and bid you 
firmly grasp it and set out anew for heaven. 

" Lo, I AM WITH YOU ALWAY, [all days^ EVEN 
UNTO THE END OF THE WORLD." 

Let me for a moment concentrate your 
thoughts upon Him whose promise is thus 
pledged: '•/ am with youP Were you 
assured of the personal presence, ever 
attending, ever clinging, ever abiding, of a 



CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 11 

• 

beloved friend selected from a wide and 
choice circle ; and were that one friend the 
most wise, the most powerful, the m.ost true, 
the most loving, confiding, and sympathizing, 
would you not be content to link with him 
alone all your future lot — to make him the 
confidant of your bosom, the partaker of 
your every joy, the sharer of your every 
sorrow? That Friend is Christ! He 
occupies the preeminent position of being 
ever near to His people; everywhere, and at 
the same moment. His presence is the 
atmosphere that enfolds them, the shield 
that encircles them, the sun that guides and 
cheers their path to the celestial city, where 
His glorified presence fills each soul with 
inefi*able happiness, heaven with its sweetest 
song, and eternity with its transcendant 
splendor. When Jesus left our earth. He 
entwined the personal interests of His mem- 
bers around His heart, and bore them with 



12 CHEIST EVER WITH YOU. 

Him to heaven ; leaving the gracious promise 
that, though personally and visibly with- 
drawn from the scene of tlieir joiirneyings, 
trials, and conflicts. His spiritual pi-esence 
should ever and everywhere engirdle them, 
until like Himself they should exchange 
earth for heaven. "Lo! mark! behold! I 
the Incarnate God, I who opened my 
bleeding heart for your redemption on 
Calvary, I who am your dearest Friend, 
your Elder Brother, — I am with you always, 
in all places, and at all times, unto the end 
of the world." Saint of God! this is the 
promise of promises, the richest pearl of all 
the promises, exceeding in its mightiness 
and preciousness, while it is the substance, 
sweetness, and pledge of all the rest. Christ 
is ever with you, and were this the one 
and only assurance of the Word of God upon 
which He had caused your soul to hope, you 
may gratefully and truthfully exclaim. 



CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 13 

" Lord ! it is enough ! with this staff I will 
travel onward ; and if through fire and 
through water Thou dost lead me, upheld by 
Tliy power, and soothed by Thy sympathy, 
I will press forward until Thou shalt bring 
me into a wealthy place." 

Christ's presence with His people was 
once, though not now, corporeal. He 
was bodily in the midst of His Church. Oh, 
it is a marvelous truth, the belief of which 
imparts a conviction of verity to the whole 
Gospel, that, eighteen hundred years ago, 
the incarnate God actually tabernacled upon 
this earth, trod its soil, sailed upon its lakes, 
drank of its springs, admired its flowers, 
bedewed it with tears, and consecrated it 
with blood. That babe of Bethlehem smiling 
in its mother's arms — that mechanic of 
Nazareth shoving the plane and plying the 
saw — that young man, pale and thouglitful, 
standing at Pilate's bar, — that victim of woe 
2 



14 CHKIST EVER WITH TOU 

impaled upon tlie central cross — listen, O 
heavens, and be astonished, O earth — was 
'Hhe fulness of the Godhead todilyP^ It is 
written by the pen of the Holy Ghost, and 
let no profane hand dare attempt its erasure 
— '^The Word was made fleshy and dwelt 
among us.^^ Yes! your flesh, O believer! 
laden with infirmity, sorrow, and woe. And 
He wears it still in a spiritual and glorified 
form, and is with you in suff'ering and 
weakness and infirmity, ever sympathiziag, 
ever sustaining. Try your spirit, whether it 
be Christ-taught, Christ-loving, Christ-trust- 
ful, by its firm, realizing faith in tliis cardinal 
and precious truth, for, ^^ every spirit tJiat 
confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the 
fie^h is of Gody 

In addition to this, there is Christ's 
representative presence with His people in 
the embassy, fulness, and preaching of the 
Gospel. The Gospel is glad tidings of Christ, 



chuist ever with yotj. 15 

it is the message of His grace, the 
proclamation of His love to lost sinners. 
The Gospel is Christ first, Christ last, Christ 
midst, Christ without end. Christ is the 
prophet of the Gospel, teaching His people 
His doctrines. Christ is the priest of the 
Gospel, bearing and making atonement for 
their sins. Christ is the Icing of the Gospel, 
reigning in the hearts of loyal and loving 
disciples. Thus, Christ is present wherever 
and whenever the good tidings of that Gospel 
are preached, to ''hind up the hroTcen-hearted^ 
to proclaim liberty to the captive^ to give 
heauty for ashes^ the oil of joy for mourning^ 
the garment of praise for the spirit of 
heaviness^ to comfort all that m^on^rnP 
Remember, O thou neglectful, unbelieving 
hearer of Christ's Gospel, that it is not the 
minister you slight nor the message you 
scorn — it is Christ Himself. ''We beseech 
you IN Christ's stead" — as though Christ 



16 CHKIST EVER WITH YOIJ, 

Himself were pleading with tears and blood 
'' ie ye reconciled to God." O blessed yet 
solemn thougbt, that, whenever my ears are 
saluted with the joyful sound, infinitely 
sweeter than angels' chimes, it is Christ's 
voice I hear, it is Christ's presence I feel, it 
is Christ's love that thrills and warms 
my soul, it is Christ's invitation to my weary 
spirit, Christ's words of sympathy to my 
sorrowful heart, Christ's promises of grace 
and strength and hope to my depressed and 
desponding mind. Oh, welcome, thou divine 
and precious Gospel! bringing with thee 
Christ's presence with a realizing power so 
personal, so conscious, and so soothing to 
the soul. 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 

We can bid farewell to things most near 
and dear to us for the sake of Christ. The 



CHEIST EVER WITH YOU. 17 

following was related in the Fulton Street 
Meeting, by a gentleman from Boston. It 
reveals the power which the love of Christ 
has over the heart of the young believer : 

He heard a French sailor relate his own 
religious, experience very briefly. He came 
into Boston from off a French ship. He was 
so bad, and wild, and undutiful, that his 
father had sent him to sea. He belonged to 
a rich family, and was " heir apparent " to a 
large property. He was well educated and 
intelligent. He went some time ago to a 
prayer meeting in Boston, where the place 
was so crowded that he turned to go away. 
But as he turned some one beckoned him to 
come forward to a seat on the pulpit stairs, 
which he took. That little gesture of a 
stranger's hand was God's instrument of the 
man's conversion. He said that if he had 
gone he should probably have never come 
again. He felt it to be a great kindness. 
2^ 



18 CHEIST EVER WITH TOF. 

He could understand but little English, but 
he continued to attend. He found that the 
meetings were "all about Jesus." The more 
he heard, the more he wanted to know, and 
the truth soon found its way into his heart. 
He found that he was a sinner doomed to 
die, but that through the blood of Jesus 
Christ his sins would be washed away. At 
length, in one of the prayer meetings in 
North Street Chapel, he experienced a con 
sciousness of sins forgiven. He wrote home 
of the great change. His father, who was a 
Eoman Catliolic, in his wrath disinherited 
him at once. But the son continued to 
write home and tell them of his love of 
Christ. He kept sending forward his letters, 
and praying for his parents ; and as a result 
he soon had the unspeakable joy of finding 
that his father and mother, and one sister, 
had been converted. They have since writ- 
ten him the most urgent letters to come 



CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 19 

home, assuring liim of a most hearty wel- 
come, desiring, above all things, to see him 
once more. ''And he has resolved to go," 
said the gentleman giving this relation. " I 
heard him make his last address to that 
prayer meeting. It was touching in the 
extreme, as with eyes streaming with tears, 
he said, ' It was on this floor I was kneeling 
when Jesus spoke peace to my soul. I 
here look on those who first told me of 
Jesus, who first begged me to come to 
Jesus, who first rejoiced with me when I 
had found Jesus. And oh ! how my heart 
is grieved, that I am come to bid you all 
farewell, to see your faces no more. The 
very boards in this fioor are dear to me, 
no place is so dear to me as this. Will I 
ever forget these dear brothers, these dear 
sisters? No — no — no — my heart tells me 
no. Oh ! I am grieved that I have to go 
away from you.' And then his voice 



20 CKBIST EYES WITH TOTI. 

became almost inaudible, and his fine intel- 
ligent face became overcast with sadness; 
but all at once he seemed stirred with a 
new sensation. He smiled and said, 'It 
will be only a little parting and for ever 
meeting. I shall soon see you all — every 
one — and we shall see Jesus, whom I love. 
And we shall sit at His blessed feet, under 
the smiles of His glorious countenance. Oh ! 
if I had lano:ua£:e. Oh I if I could tell it,' — 
as he stood gazing up into heaven — *but I 
cannot tell how I love Him, and how I will 
praise Him.' And then looking on the 
wall, whereon hung the card, in large 
letters, • Stand up for Jesus.' — 'Tes, I'U 
stand up for You, blessed Jesus, though 
thev mob me, though they strive to kill 
me. I will stand up for Jesus, I will 
never be afraid, I will never turn my 
back, I will confess Him everywhere, I 
love Him, and I know He loves me. All 



CHEIST EYEK WITH TOTJ. 21 

power is committed to His hands — He will 
take care of me. No power shall pluck me 
out of His hands.' '' 

And he sat down amid a flood of tears, 
with all the audience weeping around him. 



CHAPTEE II. 



CHRIST A PRESENCE. 




|UT it is the spiritual presence of 
^Christ thus promised and pledged to 
His people: ''Lo^ I am with you 
""'dlwayP This promise of Jesus, as 
precious as it is marvelous, is predi- 
cated upon His essential Deity. Were He, 
as some represent, human only and not 
absolutely divine, what confidence could we 
have in this promise? What comfort would 
it impart, what hope would it inspire, what 
protection would it aflord? Where is the 
created being, be he man or angel, who 
could in truth speak in language so lofty 
and sublime as this ? "Zt?, / am with you 
alway^ even to the end of the world ^'^ Would 

(22) 



CHEIST EVER WITH YOF. 23 

it not^ be the utterance of the boldest 
blasphemy in him thus to speak, and would 
it not be the veriest delusion in us thus to 
believe? But because our Lord Jesus was 
God, He spake with authority, Godlike and 
divine. ''Z am with you alioayP Oh, 
sublime thought ! there is not a world, a 
being, a spot in the universe, however re- 
mote, insignificant, or obscure — there beams 
not a star, there flames not a sun, there 
breathes not a spirit, there exists not an 
empire, Avhere Christ's government does not 
rule, Christ's power is not felt, Christ's glory 
is not displayed. Could the believer take 
the wings of the morning and fly to the 
most distant planet, or touch the utmost 
limit of space, there the smile of Christ's 
love would illumine him, the accents of 
Christ's voice would cheer him, the atmo- 
sphere of Christ's presence would encircle 
Mm, the power of Christ's omnipotence 



24 CHEIST EVER WITH YOTJ. 

would uphold him — he would feel the right 
hand of Christ gently laid upon his spirit ; 
and in the awful stillness and fathomless 
depth of that profound solitude, he would 
exclaim, " Thou art itear, Lord! " 

We repeat the inquiry for the purpose of 
pursuing it more fully: 'Whose presence is 
thus promised and pledged? It is the 
presence of Christ. The Christ of God. 
The Christ who is God. '^Immanuel^ God 
with us,^^ The Christ who made all worlds, 
created all beings, governs all empires, 
controls all events. The Christ who replen- 
ishes earth with beauty, heaven with glory, 
eternity with song. The Christ before whom 
angels and archangels, principalities and 
powers bend, and at whose name every knee 
shall bow, and every tongue confess that He 
is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 
The Christ whose glory is divine, whose 
beauty is peerless, whose wealth is boundless, 



CHRIST EVER WITH YOIT. 25 

whose love is as infinite as His being. The 
Christ who took your veritable nature, — that 
same infirm, suffering nature which now 
wearily you wear, — and in that nature bore 
and put away for ever your sins, uplifted 
and for ever removed your curse, paid all 
your great debt to Divine justice, sorrowed 
for you in the garden, suffered and expired 
in your stead on the cross, rose from the 
grave, irradiating it with the hope of the 
" first resurrection," ascended up to heaven, 
lives and intercedes for you, representing 
your person and presenting your prayers 
and praises with ineffable acceptance and 
delight to His Father and your Father, to 
His God and your God. The Christ who 
loves you with an affection whose depth no 
line can sound, whose constancy no change 
can chill, whose care of, whose sympathy for, 
whose watchfulness over, you flings as to the 
torrid zone the warmest, tenderest love that 
3 



26 CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 

ever pulsated in a human breast. The Christ 
who acknowledges Himself your Brother, 
has proved Himself your Friend, and who 
assures you that as the head is in union with 
the body, and the vine is one with the 
branch, so is He ever with, ever one with, 
ever close to you in an invisible, yet real 
and conscious presence, from which neither 
life with all its changes, nor death with all 
its solemnities, shall be able to sever you. 
Such, child of God, is the Being who 
breathes these gentle, assuring words into 
your ear — ^'/ am with you!^'^ O honored 
saint of God ! O favored disciple of Jesus ! 
who has such a one ever at your side. The 
Divinest in the universe to love you, the 
Mightiest in the universe to shield you, 
the Loveliest in the universe to delight you, 
the Dearest in the universe to soothe, cheer, 
and gladden you. Tell me, if, of all you 
have ever loved, or who have loved you. 



CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 27 

the one who was given to your youth to love 
you more tenderly than all, yea, the being 
who loved you yet more deeply, tenderly, 
and unchangeably still — who loved you as 
a mother only could, — is there one of all 
these whose presence ever with you, you 
would prefer to Christ's? The question 
grieves you, you shrink from the comparison, 
and with uplifted eye, moistened with tears, 
yet beaming with affection, you exclaim, 
from the profoundest depths of your soul, 
" Whom have 1 in heaven hut Thee ? and 
there is none upon earth that I desire ieside 
Theer 

But we must remind you, before we 
proceed further, that the presence of Christ 
with His people involves equally the pre- 
sence of the First and Third Persons of the 
ever-blessed and glorious Trinity. It is a 
triple staff we place in your hand, in grasp-, 
ing which, your faith leans upon infinity in 



28 CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 

its threefold manifestation. "We can have 
nothing to do truly, spiritually, and savingly 
with one Person of the Godhead without an 
equal faith in, and love to, the others. 
When Christ pledges His presence with you. 
He unites with it the Fatherhood of God, 
its boundless sources of love, wisdom, and 
strength. Christ came to make known the 
Father's mind, to reveal the Father's love, 
to bring home to heaven the Father's family, 
predestinated to the adoption of children. 
^'^No man hnoweth the Father^ tut he to 
whom the Son will reveal him^ ''He that 
hath seen Me hath seen the Father P That 
great God, that eternal Father, who thus 
spoke to His Church, speaks equally to you : 
^'Fear thou not j for I am with thee : he not 
dismayed ; for I am thy God: I will 
strengthen thee j yea^ I will help thee; yea^ 
I will uphold thee with the right hand of My 
righteousness,^^ " When thou jpassest through 



CHRIST EVER WITH YOTJ. 29 

the waters^ I will he with thee j and through 
the rivers^ they shall not overflow thee : when 
thou walhest through the fire^ thou shalt not 
he hurned ; neither shall the flame Mndle 
upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God^ the 
Holy One of Israel^ the Saviour.'*^ Oh, 
seek to realize this precious truth in all your 
journeying: the presence of Christ is the 
assurance that your Heavenly Father is with 
you. Christ's voice speaking to you in love, 
is the echo of the Father's voice. Christ's 
smile of delight beaming upon you, is the 
brightness of the Father's smile. Christ's 
precious promises sustaining and soothing 
you, are the ^'exceeding great and precious 
promises " of God, which are ''all yea and 
amen in Christ Jesus^ unto the glory of God 
the Father^ It is a truth, equally as re- 
vealed and equally as precious, that the 
presence of Christ with His people involves 
also the presence of the Holy Spirit. Oh 
3^ 



30 CHRIST EVER ^VT^B. YOU. 

that we had a more spiritual, vivid, grateful 
apprehension of the Divinity, personality, 
and gracious vrork of the Spirit, our Spiritual 
Quickener, our Divine Comforter, our In- 
dwelling Sanctifier, our Infallible Teacher. 
" I believe in the Holy Ghost," is one of the 
vital articles of our Creed ; is it equally the 
deep, experimental, sanctifying sentiment of 
our heart ? Do I firmly, practically believe 
in the Divine personality of the Holy Ghost, 
in His official relation to my salvation, 
in His absolute necessity in regeneration, 
in His tender, changeless love as my Com- 
forter, in His indispensable necessity as my 
Teacher, and in His gracious, sanctifying 
power, as ever abiding with, and dwelling 
in, me? Such is the magnitude and extent 
of the promise of Christ, ^'lam with yoxcP 
We repeat, it involves the love of the Father 
who adopted you, the grace of the Son 
who died for you, the power of the Spirit 



CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 31 

who quickened you, the Triune- Jehovah, 

"That triple bolt that lays all wrong in ruin." 

Before I refer to the circitmstanees in 
which you may anticipate a full realization 
of this precious promise, let me remind you 
of the offices of Christ it involves, the 
materials of this triple staff which Jesus 
places in your hand. 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Where two or three are gathered in my 
name there am I in the midst of them. "We 
must have Christ ever near. 

A gentleman said he had been several 
times of late on board the North Carolina, to 
assist in the conducting of the daily prayer 
meetings, which have been lately revived, 
and he had good news to tell. 



32 CHEIST EVER WITH YOU. 

Some months ago, everj pious seaman, 
who was on board of this old ship, had been 
drafted and sent off to some other ship in the 
naval service, so that none remained to sus- 
tain the prayer meeting, and the consequence 
was it was given up. The number on board 
also was very small. It was thought best 
to wait till the ship filled up with men, and 
then it would be proper to make an effort to 
renew the meetings. Since the business 
men's prayer meeting convention, the desire 
had been much stimulated to go on board, 
and, with the leave of the Captain, resume 
the daily meetings. So a few pious seaman 
from the shore made known their wishes to 
the commander, and he readily assented to 
the request, to hold them. The hour ap- 
pointed was at " two bells of the dog wateh/^ 
which is five o'clock, p. m. 

At the very first meeting the spirit of God 
seemed to come down with power. Toward 



CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 33 

the close of the meeting twenty-four men 
arose and requested to be made the subjects 
of prayer. At the next meeting thirty-six 
arose for prayer, at the next fifty; and the 
last cA^ening sixty signified their desire to be 
remembered in prayer. It is now a very 
solemn time on the old ship. 

STORY OF A sailor's CONVERSION. 

I was in Boston, said a gentleman, a 
clergyman, and heard a sailor tell his re- 
ligious experience. Now that prayer has 
been requested for these men of the sea, I 
want to speak of that man's account of his 
own conversion. He ran away from home 
when young and went to sea. He had a 
pious, godly mother, whom he had not seen 
for seventeen years. He often had letters 
from his mother, begging him, when he 
came into port, to come and see her, but he 
never would go. He was often under a 



34: CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 

promise to go, but when tie came home from 
his long India voyages, with one hundred 
dollars, or two hundred dollars in his pocket, 
drawn as back pay, he would go ashore and 
fall into the hands of the land sharks, and 
there he would be tossed about among them, 
until his raoney was gone, and then he 
would go to sea again to be gone for another 
long voyage. All this time his mother kept 
on praying, and writing to him, and still 
begging him to come and see her, when he 
should come ashore. This mother had been 
in the habit of praying with him when he 
was a little boy, but he had long since for- 
gotten her prayers. 

So he had gone on in a career of wicked- 
ness for seventeen years, disappointing all 
the fond hopes of hie pious mother. One 
night he said his ship was overtaken by a 
terrible hurricane, so that it seemed as if the 
sails would all be blown away. He was 



CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 35 

ordered to go aloft to endeavor to take in 
the sails to save tliem. It seemed to him 
that, in spite of all he could do, he should 
be blown off into the raging billows. In 
that terrible gale, when it seemed as if dis- 
traction and death were yawning beneath 
him to swallow him up quick, he said he 
thought he heard his mother's voice crying 
for mercy for him. The thoughts of his 
poor, praying mother came rushing over his 
soul. He listened, and still he thought, in 
the midst of the howling tempest, he heard 
the prayer of that same blessed, but neglect- 
ed mother, praying God to save her son. 
Then and there it was, said this sailor, when 
I was hanging on for my life, to keep from 
being blown overboard, all my mother's 
prayers when I was a little boy, came up to 
my mind. I seemed to hear them all over 
again. 

He said as soon as he could come down 



36 CHEIST EYER WITH YOIT. 

from aloft, overwhelmed with a sense of 
his^ sins, he ran down into the forecastle, 
and there fell on his knees and cried to God 
for mercy. He confessed what a vile sinner 
he had been, and he asked God to hear his 
poor mother's prayers and his own cries for 
mercy, and forgive him. 

He hoped he that night obtained forgive- 
ness. From that time all his manner and 
his plans of life were changed. He came 
into Boston, a new man in Christ Jesus. 
The land sharks could not get hold of him. 
He had saved up his wages, two hundred 
or three hundred dollars, and he said he 
was going right home to see his dear mother, 
who for these seventeen long years had 
been praying for him ; and whatever he 
could do, or his money could do, all should 
be done to make that dear faithful mother 
happy. 



CUEIST EVER WITH YOU. 37 



THE YOUNG MAN WHO WAS BORN AGAIN AT SEA. 

He rose at the very close of the meeting. 
^'I must speak," said he. '^This meeting 
must not close until I tell you how merci- 
fully the Lord has dealt with me. I was, 
as I hope, converted at sea less than a year 
ago. I am a stranger in this meeting, but 
I learn, from the exercises, something of 
those who compose it. There stood a gen- 
tlemen, a little time ago," pointing to a 
part of the room, "who requested you to 
pray for the young Roman Catholic Italian, 
who comes in here to learn what he shall 
do to be saved. And near me is the man 
who speaks of an awakened young man, 
near to death, who wishes to be prayed 
for. And then one of the requests for prayer 
asks us to pray for an awakened young 
lady, now in the room. And another said 
a little time ago, do pray for my infidel 
4 



38 CHRIST EVER WITH YOTT. 

young friend, who says lie has been an 
unbeliever, but the foundation on which he 
has stood has all been removed, and he finds 
him sinking to perdition. 

" Oh! hear me I say — I have been through 
all this. As you hear me now for the first — 
and will never more — remember that I say 
to every one, who is, as I was, a sinner : 
come to Jesus. There is nothing like going 
to Him, nothing in the place of going to 
Him, nothing but going to Him. So it was 
with me, away in mid ocean, and so it must • 
be with you in the Fulton Street Prayer 
Meeting. I find just such spiritual wants 
press down upon the soul here as every- 
where else, when men are out of Christ. I 
must ask you — I must entreat you to take 
sanctuary in Him and be saved. That is all 
I want to say." 

There was an urgency and earnestness in 
the appeal which moved the hearts of all 



CHEIST EVER WITH YOU. 39 

present. Men forgot, for the moment, that 
the hour for closing had fully come, and, 
prompt to the minute, the leader arose, and 
asked the meeting to sing one stanza — 

" I lay my sins on Jesus, 

The spotless lamb of God ; 
He bears them all and frees us 

From the accursed load. 
I bring ray guilt to Jesus, 

To wash my crimson stains 
White in his blood most precious 

Till not a spot remains." 



CHAPTER m. 



CHKIST A GUIDE. 




\HRIST is with us as a — Guide. 
jHow deep our need of Him as such, 
and how endeared does it make Him ! 
So blind are we, so dark our future, 
so perplexing our present path, the 
very next step might be a false one — taking 
us into a wrong direction, entailing untold 
anxieties and sorrows, or hurling us from a 
precipice into total ruin. Yes, we need just 
such a leader as Christ. What Alpine 
traveler would attempt the ascent of a steep 
glacier, or cross the dangerous pass unatten- 
ded by an experienced guide — one who 
knew the route, whose skilful eye could 

(40) 



CHRIST EYER WITH YOU. 41 

detect the treacherous crevice, and whose 
nervous arm could fence the narrow, winding 
way? Our path to eternity demands just 
such a one as the prophet foretold Christ 
should be. ^'I have given Him^^ says God, 
^^foT a Leader and Commander to the 
peopled His own gracious words corroborate 
this statement when speaking of Himself as 
the Shepherd of His flock, who '^goeth 
BEFORE the'iu^ and the sheep follow Him^ for 
they hiow His voiced Oh, what a privilege 
— in every path of doubt, in every circum- 
stance of danger, where human judgment is 
either warped or beclouded, and your own 
hesitate and falters — to have at your side 
such a wonderful Counselor, such a divine 
Guide as Christ ! As such He is ever with 
you. He will guide you with His eye of 
providence, and with His hand of power, 
and with His heart of love. He knows the 
way that you take, for He has ordained it. 
4^ 



42 CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 

He knows every crook in your lot, for He 
has appointed it. He will roll away the 
stone of difficulty, will level mountains and 
fill up valleys, make the crooked path 
straight and the rough place smooth ; this 
will He do unto you, and not forsake you. 
Oh, be honest and upright with Him ! Go 
to Him first, consult Him first, acknowledge 
Him in all your ways before you consult a 
human oracle — let Christ, in all the minute 
details of your life, have the ^re-eminence. 
Learn to lay your own judgment at His feet. 
^^The meek will He guide in judgm^ent^ and 
the meek will He teach His ^cay-^ — mot our 
way — but ''His way." We must first sur- 
render our way and will before He will 
teach us His. The " meeic " He will guide : 
the childlike, trustful, unquestioning disciple, 
that humbly locks his hand in Christ's and 
says, "Lord, lead me and guide me, not in 
my own way, but in Thine^ Oh, take a 



CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 43 

firm grasp of this triple staff, and you 
shall travel safely, surely, through all your 
unknown future. Be honest and sincere 
only to know and to walk in the Lord's way, 
the way in which He would have you to go; 
and then will He fulfil His most gracious 
promise, "Z(9, I am with you alwayP 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Christ must be our guide in the midst of 
the utmost peril and dangers. Many a 
soldier on the battle field is consoled with the 
belief that Christ is his guide though leading 
him to death, and through death to glory. 

The following notes were written in pencil 
by Samuel F. "Willard, of Madison, Conn., 
captain in the fourteenth Connecticut regi- 
ment. They were addressed to his wife, 
and within an hour after the last record, 



44 CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 

which was found on his person, was made, 
he had fallen on the battle field. On Sun- 
day morning, September 14th, he wrote : 
"To-dav we started on our Ions: march on 
hard bread and cofi'ee alone ; marched till 
four o'clock. We are now in line of battle 
in the Middletown Yalley — right in sight 
there is an artillery engagement — nothing 
very serious." 

Middletown Valley, Sept. 15, 1862. 
Monday Morntxg. 

These may be my last words ; if so, they 
are these : 

I have full faith in Jesus Christ my 
Saviour ; I do not regret that I liave fallen 
in d-efence of my country ; I have loved you 
truly and know that you have loved me, 
and in leaving this world of sin I go to 
another and better one, where I am confident 
I shall meet you. I freely forgive all my 



CHRIST EYER WITH YOU. 45 

enemies, and ask them for Clirist's sake to 
forgive me. If my body should ever reach 
home, let there be no ceremony ; I ask no 
higher honor than to die for my country ; 
lay me silently in the grave, imitate my 
virtues, and forgive all my errors. 

I prefer death in the cause of my country, 
to life in sympathy with its enemies. 

And now, my precious wife, good-bye. 
May the grace of God sustain you, and we 
will meet at last in heaven. 

Signed in the valley on the battle ground 
near Boliver Heights, Md. 

Samuel Francis Willard. 

Tuesday Morning, Sept. 16, 1862. 

The Division moved yesterday at about 
10 A. M., passed through the region of the 
battle on the previous day — dead rebels on 
every side. Our surgeons administered to 
the wants of many of the wounded rebels. 



46 CHKIST EVER WITH YOU. 

Saw hundreds of wounded rebels as we 
passed through different villages, in barns, 
houses, hospitals. It was a very sony sight 
for our boys — rebels were strongly intrench- 
ed on the mountain and held a good position, 
but fled as the army approached. Generals 
McClellan and Burnside passed in front of 
the army — immense cheering. Rebel pris- 
oners being brought in all the time^ poorly 
dressed but fine looking fellows — act as 
though they were glad to be taken in. 

Tuesday Morning, — later 

The battle has commenced, one man killed 
within twenty rods of me by a shell. My 
faith is in God ; if I die, I die in the faith of 
my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who 
died that I miglit live. We are now to go 
into battle. God save my men, God save 
me, God save the United States of America, 
God bless you my own dear wife, and may 



CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 47 

% 

we meet at last in heaven where there will 
be no war or sin. 

Camp near Peters ville, Md., 
Wednesday Morning, 17 th. 

We are on the eve of a great battle. 
Yesterday, there was an artillery engage- 
ment close by us, and we were dodging 
shells and balls for about three hours. One 
man was killed within fifteen or twenty rods 
of me. Several others were wounded. We 
have an immense army here ; Mc Clellan 
and Burnside are in command ; I can- 
not say more ; we are ordered off with 
eighty rounds of cartridges ; cannon are 
booming on every side ; my faith is in God. 

I passed the battle ground Monday, saw 
tlie dead and dying on every side ; I pray 
God we may be successful and that you 
may see me again. 

And just there the pencil notes close 



48 CHEIST EVER WITH YOU. 

suddenly. An hour later he lay dead on 
the field of victory, and this pencil story 
remains to tell how he died. 



CHAPTER IV. 



CHRIST A SHIELD. 




S a Shield and Deliverer^ Christ is 
ever with His people. Our estimation 
of this truth will be proportioned to 
our intelligent apprehension of the 
number and potency of our enemies — 
the costliness and preciousness of the treasure 
thus divinely protected. With what un- 
slumbering vigilance, with what divine 
power, with what changeless love does the 
Lord Jesus shield the work of grace in the 
soul of His people ! Who keeps that spark 
alive in the ocean? Who guards this vine- 
yard of red wine night and day lest any hurt 
it ? Who preserves faith from faltering, love 

5 (49) 



50 CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 

from chilling, hope from dying? Who 
strengthens the work when it is feeble, 
raises it when it droops, restores it when it 
relapses, keeps it in the cold of winter and 
the drouglit of summer, and, when the frosts 
and winds of autumn would nip and scatter 
its foliage, clothes il with the freshness and 
bloom of spring? Oh, it is Jesus, encircling 
with His all-protecting shield the work 
which His death accomplished and which 
His Spirit wrought. Trembling believer in 
Christ ! cast not away this holy confidence, 
for it hath great recompence of reward. 
The work of grace in your heart shall never 
die; the kingdom of righteousness, peace, 
and joy in your soul is indestructible. '^They 
shall never jperisJi^'* is the declaration of the 
Shepherd who bought you with His blood. 
Watched over by Christ, you are kept by 
the power of God. And, although the tide 
of spiritual affection may ebb, and the 



CHRIST EVER WITH TOIT. 51 

shadows of twilight fall thickly upon your 
soul, and you be ready to regard your 
conversion a mistake, your religion a de- 
lusion, and your hope a fallacy — thus 
casting away your confidence, yet, there is 
One who knows His own work, recognizes 
His own image, reads His Spirit's writing in 
the soul, and must Himself cease to be ere 
He allows those living embers of love He 
has enkindled upon the altar of your renewed 
heart to die. The rain may descend, the 
winds may blow, the flood may surge — 

'* But the inextinguishable flame burns on, 
And shall for ever bum." 

And then there are external assualts from 
which alone Christ can shield us. Innumer- 
able and invisible, sleepless and restless, 
working with a power almost almighty, and 
every where with an ubiquity almost omni- 
present, ever plotting our ruin, are the 



52 CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 

spiritual enemies of our soul, and the sworn 
foes of our faith. The world, and its fascin- 
ations; Satan, and his devices; tlie flesh, 
and its tendencies ; error, and its disguises, 
are all confederate against the child of God, 
opposing his every advance in holiness. But 
Christ is our ever-present shield, near at the 
moment of assault, and skillful to parry and 
disarm it. ''Fear not^ Abram^ I am thy 
shield^'^ are words addressed to all who have 
like precious faith with him. Listen to Paul 
when defending Christianity before Nero: 
''At my first answer no man stood vnth me^ 
hut all menfo7'sooh me. . . Notwithstanding 
the Lord stood with me^ and strengthened 
m^." Severed from the protection and 
sympathy of man, he was all the more 
conscious of the presence and love of God. 
This is the manner of the Lord with us. 
The stage shall be swept of the human to 
give place to the Divine. When the last 



CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 53 

human prop bends, and the last spark of 
creature-hope expires, hail it as the harbinger 
of Christ's nearness, that the more signal 
may appear His loving deliverance, and the 
more complete and undivided His glory. 
Oh yes! the Lord encompasses you. En- 
circled by danger, you are also encircled by 
Christ. When you embark in His cause on 
foreign service, enter the carriage of a 
railway, launch upon the treacherous sea, 
bend your steps of mercy to the bedside of 
infection, travel the lone and dreary road, 
be your experience what it may, let your 
mind be kept in perfect peace, trusting in 
this truth: the ever-present protection of 
Jesus. The unhealthy clime shall be harm- 
less, the sickening malaria innocuous, the 
perilous transit safe, curtained within the 
pavilion of your Saviour's love. Swelling 
above the tempest, louder than the voice of 
many waters, or whispered in the still 
5^ 



54 CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 

solitude, softer than the JEolian's breathing, 
shall be heard the words of Jesus, ''Fear not^ 
I am with thee ; he not dismayed^ I am thy 
Ood^'^ Lord, it is enough ! My heart trusted 
in Thee, and I am helped ! 

Christ is with His people as the Head and 
Depository of all their spiritual sitpplies. 
The resources of the believer, although not 
from himself, and often, like Hagar's well, 
veiled from the eye, are yet, like that well- 
spring of water, flowing at the very side of 
the needy saint. Destitution may reign far 
and wide, and the plaintive cry ascend from 
many a famished lip, "Who will show us 
any good?" — yet his soul, fed with the 
hidden manna and quenclied from the river, 
the streams of which make glad the city of 
God, is kept alive in famine and in drought, 
and is like ''a watered garden^ and lihe a 
spring of water lohose waters fail notP And 
what explains this mystery? The nearness 



I 



CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 55 

at his side of a full Christ, overflowing with 
a redundancy of grace, love, and sjmipathy, 
suiting every circumstance, answering every 
call, supplying every demand. New exi- 
gencies may occur in his daily history, new 
demands made upon his mental and physical 
powers, trials of a new form may transpire, 
infirmities but just discovered, sorrows 
hitherto untasted, temptations before un- 
known, all marking a new epoch in his 
history, a new phase of Christian experience, 
and all clamorous for the grace that is to 
sustain, the sympathy that is to soothe, the 
wisdom that is to guide. And shall they 
ask in vain? Never! Christ is with us, 
furnished, given, and pledged to supply 
amply and fully all the necessities of His 
people. ''And of His fulness have all we 
received^ and grace for grace^'^ that is, grace 
following grace, grace answering every call 
for grace, more grace, grace outmeasuring 



Ob CHEIST EVER WITH YOU. 

all past supply, all present want, '' exceeding 
ahundantly cibove all that we can ask or 
think,^'^ O blessed truth ! in the world's 
insolvency, the believer has a safe bank ; in 
the world's famine, he has a full granary ; 
in the world's drought, he has springs of 
water; in the world's heat, he has his 
pleasant and grateful shade. And all this is 
concentrated in Christ ; for Christ is all. O 
favored saint! to have a full, overflowing, 
redundant supply, so near ; exiled from all 
other resources, other supports failing, other 
springs drying, other shades vanishing as in 
a night, and he, perchance, sitting him down 
to die in hopeless grief, lo ! words fall upon 
his ear softer, sweeter than angels' chimes, 
^'I am with you alway j with you in this 
lone place and at this trying moment, to 
unseal your eye to the boundless fulness that 
it pleased the Father should dwell in Me for 
you, the Father's child." 



CHRIST EVER WITH YOH. 57 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 

"Hold thou me up and I shall be safe." 
In a certain regiment fifty-seven men were 
men of prayer. Before a great battle they 
all fell on their knees and asked Christ to 
take care of them. All survived while 
hundreds of the regiment were killed. 

WHAT SET HIM TO THINKING. 

"Glad to see you. I shall never forget 
the medicine you gave me below Frederick." 

This was said by my ambulance driver, a 
young man who had been directed by the 
surgeon to go with me on a tour of distri- 
bution. I did not recollect him for the 
moment. He seemed happy as we started 
off, and inclined to converse. "I didn't 
think much of religion," said he, "before I 
came to this war, but I've had a great many 



58 CHEIST EVER WITH YOTJ. 

serious thoughts here. I mean to lead a 
different life." 

" What set you a thinking ? " 

"Ball's Bluff was one place." 

"Were you there?" 

"Yes, all day fighting. I tell you it was 
solemn work ; my comrades falling dead on 
either side of me. I felt that I wanted 
religion." 

"That set you a thinking?" 

"Yes, it did; and another thing was a] 

young man by the name of W , a brave 

fellow and a Christian, when on the morning 
of the battle he knelt down in front of our 
tent and prayed.'' 

"Tell me about that," said I. 

"We had been detailed from our regiment 
as orderlies of General Lander, and occupied 
a tent together. We were not obliged to go 
to the battle, but hearing that our company 
were going, we could not stay away, and 



CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 59 

both obtained permission to fall in. Off we 

hurried. W ran back for his cartridge 

box, and then, as if he had forgotten some- 
thing else, dropped upon his knees at the 
door of the tent, and began to praj most 
earnestly. I never heard such a prayer as 
that. I took my hat off, but did not kneel. 
The captain of his company ( not a Christian) 
stood by and shook his head at the boys to 
have them keep still, saying, in a low tone, 
as he pointed to the one praying, ' That 's a 
good boy ; ' and General Lander, when he 
heard of that prayer, remarked : ' Tliat is 
the hind of soldiers I want. That hoy is 
worth his weight in Gold,^ We went to 
the figlit, and neither of us was hurt. God 
helped us through." 

MUSIC AND LIGHT ON THE BATTLE FIELD. 

A brave and godly captain in one of our 
western regiments told one of us his story, 



60 CHRIST EVER WITH YOTT. 

as we were removing him to the hospital. 
He was shot through both thighs with a rifle 
bullet: a wound from which he could not 
recover. While lying on the field, he suf- 
fered intense agony from thirst. He sup- 
ported his head upon his hand, and the rain 
from heaven was falling around him. In a 
little while a little pool of water formed 
under his elbow, and he thought if he could 
only get to that puddle he might quench his 
thirst. He tried to get into a position to 
suck up a mouthful of muddy water, but he 
was unable to reach within a foot of it. 
Said he, "I never felt so much the loss of 
any earthly blessing. By-and-by night fell, 
and the stars shone out clear and beautiful 
above the dark field ; and I began to think 
of the great God who had given his Son to 
die a death of agony for me, and that He was 
up there — up above the scene of suffering, 
and above those glorious stars; and I felt 



CHRIST EVER WITH YOIT. 61 

that I was going home to meet Him, and 
praise Him there ; and I felt that I ought to 
praise God, even wounded and on the battle 
field. I could not help singing that beautiful 
hymn, 

*When I can read my title clear 
To mansions in the skies, 
I'll bid farewell to every fear, 
And wipe my weeping eyes.' 

And," said he, " there was a Christian 
brother in the brush near me. I could not 
see him, but I could hear him. He took up 
the strain ; and beyond him another and 
another caught it up all over the terrible 
battle field of Shiloh. That night the echo 
was resounding, and we made the field of 
battle ring with hymns of praise to God ! " 



CHAPTEE Y. 



CHRIST A TEACHEK. 




HRIST is with His people as — a 
Teacher. There exists no office of 
Christ that is not openly impugned 
and denied in the present day : and 
not one more so than His jprojphetic office. 
The instruction that canseth to err, every- 
where and alarmingly abounds. The teach- 
ing of men is exalted above the teaching of 
Christ, and, as a consequence, Infidelity and 
Popery are rife, and the people are wonder- 
ing after the false prophet and the beast. 
This is a day in which the Lord's true people 
must exhibit their loyalty to Christ in his 
prophetical office : as the sole, divine, author- 

(63) 



CHRIST EYER WITH YOU. 63 

ized Teacher of the Church. To Him, as our 
Teacher, must we only look, and His teach- 
ing must we only follow. There is no safety 
but at Christ's feet ; accepting no doctrine 
and observing no practice but what comports 
with the teaching, example, and simplicity 
of his word. If true and faithful disciples, 
to Christ we must closely and exclusively 
adhere. We have but one master, Christ ; 
to Him we stand or fall. Beware, in re- 
ligious sentiments, of the fascination and in- 
fluence of ecclesiastical authority, cultivated 
intellect, and polished bearing : all this is of 
man, and partakes of the infirmity and sin- 
fulness of man. Untaught by the Holy 
Spirit, and unsanctified by God's grace, we 
have seen the most brilliant and eminent 
gifts prove but as decoy lights, glimmering 
along the bleak, fatal shores of Infidelity and 
Eomanism, alluring, and then wrecking, up- 
on their rocks, quicksands, and shoals the 



64: CHKIST EVER WITH YOU. 

too confiding, unsuspecting mind, " handl- 
ing the word of God deceitfully^ Oh, be 
Christ's true disciple: loyal to His person 
and faithful to His truth ! It is the word of 
Christ that quickens you, sanctifies you, 
comforts you. Nor can you part with one 
doctrine of Christ without inflicting the most 
serious injury upon your soul, and shading 
His glory. ^^ Let the word of Christ dwell 
in you richly in all wisdom.'^'^ The- more 
experimentally you know, and the more 
simply you walk in Christ's truth, the holier 
and the happier will you be. Oh, how in- 
creasingly glorious to your eye and precious 
to your heart will Christ become ! You will 
more and more clearly see that all truth 
centers in Christ, and that Christ is the 
substance of all truth ; that to know Christ 
is to know the truth ; and to know the truth 
is to be freed from the blinding influence, 
erroneous teaching, and ghostly authority 



CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 65 

of man. Blessed Jesns ! thou Divine Prophet 
of Thy Church ! " happy are Thy men, happy 
are these Thy servants, which stand con- 
tinually before Thee, and that hear Thy 
wisdom." 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Christ must be made of God, to us wisdom 
in the midst of ignorance. He must be our 
Teacher, for He can teach without any man 
at all. The following are cases of this divine 
illumination : 

AN ANXIOUS ROMAN CATHOLIC. 

It was a young man. His eyes were red 
with weeping. He had attended these 
meetings for a few days. He came at first 
without the knowledge of his friends. He 
became anxious about his soul, almost from 
6^ 



66 CHEIST EVER WITH YOU. 

the first time of his coming to the prayer 
meetings. His friends found out his state 
of mind — that the poor young man was 
anxious to know what he should do to be 
saved — and they hurried him out, at night, 
into the streets. 

"Last night." said he, "I had to walk 
the streets all night, to keep myself warm ; " 
and he looked down at his worn-out shoes. 

The Saviour, we told him, "had not where 
to lay His head." His eyes filled with tears. 
We conversed with him, counseled him, 
prayed with him, and he went out to seek 
employment, saying, "I shall be in the 
prayer meeting to-morrow." 

ANOTHER. 

He came wishing to know where he 
could go to sign the temperance pledge. 
He had a family. He had formed drinking 
habits, though not a drunkard; but his 



CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 67 

conviction was, that, to be consistent in seek- 
ing an interest in Christ, he ought to begin 
by abandoning strong drink. He is earnestly 
seeking. He is at our meetings every day, 
and begins to give pleasing evidence that 
he has experienced the "great change." 

ANOTHER. 

Tliis is the case of a lady. She put into 
the meeting the following request for prayer: 

"A lady (Roman Catholic) who came 
to this meeting at first out of mere curiosity, 
but who heard at this meeting such things 
as she has never heard before, would be 
"oery thankful if the Fulton Street Prayer 
Meeting will pray for her all this week, that 
she may be taught how to believe on Christ. 
She does not think she is a Christian, but 
desires to be one. She will attend every 
day." 

She was inquired of if her priest would 



68 CHRIST EVER WITH YOIT. 

allow her to attend these prayer meet- 
ings. 

"Mj priest," she replied, "cannot hinder 
me. The step is my own. It is taken with 
great deliberation. I act under the dictates 
of my own conscience. I must do what I 
am convinced my own welfare requires. I 
believe these are Christians. I believe this 
is prayer." 

" What has wrought such a great change 
in your feelings and opinions ? " 

"The wide difference between the mem- 
bers of my own Church and those who come 
here to pray, is enough to induce me to 
inquire what it means. These are praying 
people. My people are cursing, swearing, 
prayerless people. I believe these are 
Christians. I fear that very few of my 
Church are Christians ; I think some are." 

"Are you concerned about yourself?" 

" So much so that I am very miserable. 



CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 69 

I did not close my eyes in sleep last night, 
by reason of my anxiety." 

"Can you give up all hope from your 
own merits, or any meritorious acts which 
you may perform — all expectation of pardon 
on account of penances or absolution, and 
rest solely on the merits of Christ's atoning 
sacrifice for all your hope of justification 
with God?" 

"I can, and do so. I know I must. But 
I do not have peace." 

" Is there any thing you are unwilling to 
give up ? " 

"No, nothing. I am willing to give up 
Church, my former religion, every thing 
else, if I can only have forgiveness of sin, 
and peace and joy in believing in Christ, 
such as you Protestants have." 

"You must not make a merit of even 
giving these up. You must simply tnist 
your soul in the hands of Christ, as a Saviour, 
with confidence and love." 



70 CHRIST EYER WITH YOU. 

Can any doubt that this poor Catholic 
lady has been led of the Spirit, thns far? 
She does not doubt it. She says none but 
Divine power could have led her to the 
ground on which she now stands. 



CHAPTER YL 



CHRIST A SAVIOUR. 




HEIST is with us as — a Saviour. 
Oh, how the heart thrills and the eye 
beams at the mention of the name 
of Jesus ! What we chiefly need is, . 
not wisdom to guide, or power to shield, or 
sympathy to soothe, or might to strengthen ; 
it is SALVATION — the soul saved — a Saviour 
to save us to the uttermost. We want guilt 
atoning blood, soul-justifying righteousness, 
sin-subduing grace ; a Saviour that has done 
all, suffered all, paid all, and leaves us 
nothing to do but, believe and be saved. 
This is Jesus. My reader,' salvation is the 
finished work of Christ, and the free gift of 

cn) 



72 CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 

God; and nothing less and nothing more is 
required of you than that, with a penitent 
and believing heart, you trust in the blood 
and righteousness of the Lord Jesus. God 
has laid all your sins, all your curse, and all 
your condemnation upon Christ; and all 
that He asks of you in return is, a believing, 
loving, obedient reception of His Son. Oh, 
then, grieve not, dishonor not the Saviour 
by doubting His willingness or ability to 
save yoii! 

Let us employ the few remaining pages in 
suggesting some of those more peculiar and 
pressing ciTcumstances in our history in 
which the presence of Christ may be es- 
pecially anticipated by the child of God, the 
believing apprehension of which will impart 
nerve to the hand that grasps this strong 
and beautiful staff. 



CHRIST EVER WITH YOTT. 73 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Christ is the all-sufficient and only Saviour 
and Redeemer for all those who will truly 
put their trust in Him. He saves to the 
uttermost all who come to God by Him. 

COMmG TO CHRIST AT ONCE. 

"Are you the Missionary of this old 
Church ? " said a plain, intelligent, energetic 
looking man, as he came up into the upper 
lecture room in Fulton Street. 

"I am," said the Missionary. 

"Well, I wanted to see you and talk with 
you a moment." 

"What do you want?" said the Missionary. 
The man stood with his chin quivering, and 
his eyes suffused with tears, as he answered ; 
"I want to become a Christian." 

"You do?" said the Missionary. "Why 
do you want to become a Christian ? " 
7 



74: CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 

"I am a farmer," said the man, "well to 
do in the world. I have every thing in the 
world that a man needs, but I have no 
religion." And he looked like a despairing, 
lost man, who knew he was lost. 

''What roused up your attention to the 
need of religion ? " 

" I read in the revival article, in the Chris- 
tian Intelligencer, a scrap headed, 'not till 
the next communion.' It told how the poor 
man kept saying, when urged to come to 
the Church and make open profession of his 
attachment to Christ, 'Not till the next 
communion : ' till one day when he was 
called for, at his room, it was found that he 
was gone. And when inquiry was made 
for him, the unfeeling answer was made that 
he died right here, dropped down dead, one 
day, and we cleared him out to Greenwood. 
I read it, and it struck terror to my mind. 
I thought, what if I should be stricken down 



CHRIST EYER WITH YOU. 75 

in tlie same way, all unprepared as I 
am." 

"And what wonld become of you?" 
"I should be lost," said he, with deep 
feeling, "lost. I know I should go right 
down to hell, for I am a great sinner." 
"How was it that you came in here?" 
"I am a farmer in Hunterdon County, 
New Jersey ; I had heard of these prayer 
meetings here, so I thought I would come 
here at once. I was in the meeting yester- 
day. And I must go home to-day ; and I 
cannot go till I am a Christian." 

The Missionary closed the door and thus 
precluded interruption, and said, "I do not 
see but you must become a Christian now. 
Are you willing to submit to Christ now, 
to believe on Him, and trust Him and His 
finished righteousness for all your hope of 
salvation ?" 
"Yes." 



76 CHEIST EVER WITH YOIT. 

"To repent of, and forsake all sin, and 
devote yourself forever to Him ? " 

"Yes." 

"To pray with me now, to go honie and 
pray in your family, and under all circum- 
stances lead a Christian life ? " 

"Yes." 

Tlie Missionary led in prayer. The farmer 
followed, in a prayer of earnest humility, 
penitence, self-renunciation, and unreserved 
consecration to the service of God. 

He went into the prayer meeting which 
was just about to open. After it was over, 
he went on his way, rejoicing in the hope 
that his sins had been forgiven, and resolved, 
on a new life of devotedness to God. From 
the time of his first awakening, he gave his 
attention to the subject of personal religion 
with an earnestness which asked for no 
delay. " Such a prayer as that man made," 
said the Missionary, in relating these facts, 



CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 77 

"I scarcely ever heard ; and I felt in mj own 
soul, that that man had found an interest in 
Christ, and had made the surrender and 
the consecration which he professed." 

Some one touched the writer as he was 
leaving the prayer meeting. He turned 
and saw the face of a well-known Christian 
brother ; and close at hand stood a young 
lady, dressed in deep mourning, with whom 
lie had been conversing — standing there, a 
child of sorrow. The big tears wei'e slowly 
rolling down her cheek, and then she would 
wipe them away, as if she had been half 
unconscious of their fallintr. 

Here is a lady, said the gentleman, to 
whom I wish you to say a few words. She 
says she is "uncertain what to do." I soon 
saw that slie was in spiritual trouble. 

"Why are you uncertain what to do?" 
we enquired. 



7^ 



78 CHEIST EVER WITH YOU. 

"1 do not understand tlie next step to be 

taken," said she. 

"Where are you now?" we asked. 

''1 have been coming daily to these 

meetings for four weeks, and all that time I 

have felt anxious about my soul, but all I 

do does not seem to make my case any 

better." 

'''And what do you try to do?" 

"I have striven to convince myself that 

I am a sinner: as I know I am. But 

though I know it, as a truth, I do not feel 

about it as I should." 

''How would you feel about it if you 

could?" 

"I would have deep conviction." 
"What is your present impression about 

yourself? " 

"That I am a great sinner; that is all." 
" And what would you have more ? " 
" That is what I do not understand. My 



CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 79 

next step should be for deeper conviction. 
But what further can I do ? " 

''Tour mistake is a very common one. 
Your next step, and only step, is to go to 
Christ, just as you are. Go to Him at 
once. You can do nothing. Hitherto you 
have been relying upon yourself. Renounce 
all this as a dishonor done to Christ, as a 
Saviour, and go to Him for all the help 
you need hope for, or desire." 

"Is that all?" 

" That is all. You must repent now and 
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Go to 
Him, who says to you, 'Him that cometh 
unto me, I will in no wise cast out.' All 
you have to do is, with true penitence, to 
believe in His mercy." 

" Oh," said she, as if a new light had 
dawned upon her mind, " is that my next 
step ? " 

" Not your next step, as if you had al- 



80 CHEIST EVER WITH YOU. 

ready taken one or more riglit steps in 
religion. Going to Christ is yonr first 
step. He does not say. Come to conviction, 
come to a deeper sense of sin. But He says, 
Come unto Jff^." 

" Oh ! what a self-righteous creature I am. 
I see it all now. I have been refusing Christ, 
while all this time I thought I was pre- 
paring to come to Him." She said this, 
evidently disappointed in herself. 

"Will you go to Jesus, now?" was 
hastily asked. 

She looked up with a smile, and great 
resolution depicted in her intelligent face, 
as she answered, 

"I WILL." 

She will^ indeed, if the Spirit was truly 
making her "willing in the day of His 
power." There and then we parted. The 
sequel is yet to come. 



CHAPTEE YII. 



CHRIST IN SERYICE. 




HRIST is with you — in service. 
The religion of Jesus is an active, 
self-denjdng religion. The Divine 
Master has left the scene of His own 
toil, but He has given to every disciple his 
work. Each has his mission : something to 
do for souls, something to accomplish for the 
Saviour, some glory to bring to God. Real- 
izing in some degree what a debtor to the 
Lord he is, what he owes to the love that 
chose him, to the blood that ransomed him, 
to the grace that called him, to the Saviour 
that gave Himself a sacrifice, the believer 
exclaims from the depth of his grateful 

(81) 



82 CKRIST EVER WITH TOU. 

heart, '^ Lord^ what wilt Thou have me to 
do f " And now, to labor for Christ is his 
highest desire and ambition ; be the service 
home or foreign, pleasant or self-denying, 
distinguished or obscure, to rule an empire 
or to sweep a crossing. In this service for 
Christ, Christ is with you. Unseen and 
unheard. He is close at your side, guiding 
your judgment, strengthening your faith, 
nerving your heart, sustaining and cheering 
your spirit, honoring, blessing, and reward- 
ing your labor. Oh, think not that Christ 
can quit you for a moment, active and toil- 
ing for Him. He knows all your difficulties, 
marks your discouragements, is cognizant 
of your infirmities, sees your faintings and 
deficiencies, how onerous, delicate and hum- 
bling the task. Think you, while engaged 
in a service of love for His name, the sweat 
upon your brow, the pressure of your mind, 
anxiety and exhaustion absorbing life itself, 



CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 83 

foes threatening, friends chiding, your own 
heart often misgiving, that Christ will leave 
you? Oh never! ^^ Lo^ lam with you 
alway'^'^ — all days — are the words with 
which He seeks to strengthen and cheer you 
on in your work of faith and labor of love 
which you show for His dear name. 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Christ must ever be with us in all the 
duties of life. We must have His presence 
as a power in our hearts. '^ Ever with you" 
has cheered thousands of hearts in the midst 
of arduous labors in His service. 



As soon as the prayer was concluded, an 
old British veteran arose, and began to speak 



84: CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 

with a strong Scotch accent. He said he 
was glad to hear that young chaplain to the 
army ask for prayer. For his part he 
believed in prayer; he rejoiced in prayer; 
he lived in prayer. He had known the 
power of prayer. He had felt it. He knew 
God heard and answered prayer. Oh ! how 
wondrously does He answer ! What displays 
of His grace, said he, have I seen in answer 
to prayer. When General Havelock was 
chaplain of a company, I was a non-com- 
missioned officer in the same company. I 
knew him well. He was not then a pious 
man. He began even then, however to 
manifest those qualities which afterwards so 
distinguished him. It was not until he rose 
to a higher grade that the great change took 
place. Then, he was for the salvation of his 
men, out of every kind of evil: present and 
to come. At first he began with temperance. 
Then he went on to religion. He was a 



CHRIST 



iSyer with yoxt. 85 



noble commander, brave as be was good. 
He dared to do right, no matter who opposed. 
When his chaplains were gone, or disabled, 
he would be his own chaplain. He had 
heard him preach the Gospel many a time. 
He was a power in the camp : that you may 
well believe. The men all respected him. 
They knew he was a thorough soldier : fear- 
less as a lion, as well as a Christian. Many 
eyes would be wet when Havelock was 
speaking. There was such earnestness and 
tenderness at times. At other times he 
would make your very hair stand on end. 
It was not strange that many were con- 
verted. Their hearts melted under his ap- 
peals and great numbers turned to the 
Lord. When they received Jesus, and 
great numbers did, and professed their faith 
in Christ, then he went one step further, 
and baptized them in the name of the Father, 
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Oh ! 
8 



86 CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 

what solemn times I have seen away in 
India among these men. 

Some of the officers became his enemies. 
They wrote to the Commander-in-Chief of 
the British forces in India, complaining of 
General Havelock, and saying that he did 
things nnbecoming an officer, and took upon 
himself to do what he had no right to do. 
The Chief in command appointed a Com- 
mission of Inquiry. They came and made 
a thorough examination into the conduct of 
the General and ^the condition of the men. 
They found Havelock a most rigid discipli- 
narian — thorough in discipline as he was 
fervent in prayer, and they found no portion 
of the army in so good a state as the soldiers 
of Havelock. They said to him, after all 
their examination, "Go on with your tem- 
perance; go on with your praying; go on 
with your baptizing; the better these Chris- 
tian men, the better the soldiers." They 



CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 87 

reported to the Chief in command that they 
found no snch soldiers as the praying saints, 
as they called them, of General Havelock. 
If there were men wanted for any post of 
duty and of danger, Havelock's saints were 
the men. 

I have been in many a hard-fought battle, 
the old soldier added, and our men never 
went into battle without prayer. They com- 
mitted themselves to the Lord Jesus, and 
then they were ready for life or deatli. 

Our armies, said the old veteran, should 
be praying armies. We Tnust have prayer. 
Prayer prevails with God. How was it with 
Joshua and the kings and prophets of Israel? 
What men of prayer they were, and how the 
Lord heard and answered them. Let us 
pray for the men in arms; pray for the 
chaplains. 

The old warrior spoke with great earnest- 



88 CHRIST EVER WITH YOr. 

ness, and the tears rolled down many a face 
as lie gave his personal experience and 
hearty, honest testimony to the jpower of 



CHAPTER YIII. 



CHRIST EST SUFFEEIKG. 




HEIST is with yon in — suffering. 
Himself a sufferer ; oh, suffering 
never looked so lovely, martyrdom 
never wore a crown so resplendent, 
as when the Son of God bowed His head 
and drank the cup of woe for us ! Himself 
a sufferer, is there a being in the universe 
who could take His place at your side in all 
the scenes of mental, spiritual, and bodily 
suffering through which your Heavenly 
Father leads you, comparable to Christ? 
What are your sufferings contrasted with 
His? And what was there in the unpar- 
alleled greatness and intensity of His to dis- 

8^ (89) 



90 CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 

qualify Him from entering with the warmest 
love and deepest sympathy into yours ? Suf- 
fering for His sake, or suffering His will. He 
is with you to sustain, to mitigate, to sanc- 
tify. It is given to you not only to believe, 
but also to suffer for Christ. Removed from 
the active sphere of your Christianity ; the 
sphere and the service which, perhaps, you 
too fondly idolized ; He has placed you in 
the school of passive endurance, a position 
to you the most irksome and trying. Look 
into the burning, fiery furnace of the three 
children of Israel : "Z(9, 1 see four men loose^ 
walking in the midst of the fire^ and they 
have no hurt ; and the form of the fourth is 
nice the Son of God,'' (Dan. 3: 25). ^So is 
Christ with you in suffering. You shall pass 
through the furnace, the flames but destroy- 
ing your bonds and setting you free from 
some dominant sin, some potent spell, some 
slavish fear, bringing you more fully into 



CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 91 

the happy, holy realization of your adoption, 
pardon, and acceptance of God. Treading 
that furnace at your side, controlling its 
flames, tempering its heat, is the same Son 
of God who trod it with them, and who says 
to you, "Z(9, / am with you alway " 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 

The blessed Saviour is never more with His 
people than in suffering. He himself has 
been a sufferer and He knows how to pity 
His people when they suffer, and if best for 
them, He can send them quick relief. 

An old sea captain, with great emphasis, 
exhorted men to have faith in God, as a 
hearer and answerer of prayer. He urged 
faith as certain of a blessing in some form 
or other, and often in the very form in which 
it was looked for. He mentioned an illus- 



92 CHRIST EVER TVTTH YOU. 

tration in his own history. After he became 
pious, and while he yet commanded a ship, 
he was blown off from the coast of America, 
ont to sea, in a gale. He had his wife and 
two children on board. All hands, passen- 
gers, officers and crew, were put on short 
allowance, and very short at that, a mere 
morsel of meat to each. When they had 
been out thirty days, and had not seen a sail^ 
he brought up all the provision he had, and 
spread it on a cotton bale, and fell down on 
his knees by the side of it, and prayed God 
that He would make that like the widow's 
cruise of oil and barrel of meal, that He 
would not allow it to be spent, that He 
would vindicate His own name as the hearer 
of prayer, and send them quick relief. He 
cast himself implicitly upon the promise of 
God. And while he was yet on his knees, 
he felt such a sweet assurance that his 
prayer was heard and already answered, 



CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 98 

that he went down into the cabin and told 
his wife that they should have succor, and 
that speedily. She could scarcely believe it. 
They had been now thirty-four days, and 
had not seen a sail, and no prospect of 
seeing one. His wife stood in a state of 
incredulous amazement. 

" What makes you think we are to have 
succor ? " said she. 

''Because I have been asking, and God 
has assured me that it is coming, and close 
at hand." 

"While I was yet speaking, there was a cry 
on deck, and from the lookout, aloft, ''Sail 
ho," "Sail ho." I ran on deck; "Where 
away?" said I, and was answered; and 
within ten minutes from the time I arose 
from my knees in prayer, there was a ship 
under full sail, bearing down for us, and 
when it came near, I saw them lower the 
"boat, and put into it four barrels. The boat 



94 CHRIST EVER WITH YOII. 

was cast off aDd pulled away for my ship. 
You would hardly have expected that such 
a little cockle shell of a boat could live in 
such a sea. But she rode like an egg. When 
the officer came on deck, I enquired of him 
what he had in his boat. 

"Two barrels of meat, and two barrels of 
bread," he answered. 

"What made you bring them here?" 
said I. 

"God put it into my heart. I . thought 
you must be short of provisions, sir, and so 
I brought them along." 

So within an liour from the time I was 
praying for food, I had two barrels of meat 
and two barrels of bread added to my stores, 
and we were all saved. 

He said that he could give many like 
examples from his own history, but the five 
minutes rule would forbid. 



CHAPTER IX. 




CHRIST m EETIEEMENT. 

H RIST is with you in — retwemeni 
and solitude. It was in this path of 
loneliness, consecrated to contempla- 
tion and prayer, that our blessed 
Lord was the most effectually trained and 
girded for His mission of love. He fre- 
quently and habitually sought retirement. 
Sequestered from the world, withdrawn from 
His disciples, He would thread the mountain 
defiles and seek in its deep ravines and 
hidden recesses the solitary place for prayer. 
Entering that lonely garden '' over the IrooTc 
Kedron^'' amidst its hallowed shades, its 
leafy grottoes, and its solemn stillness. He 

(95) 



96 CHEIST EVER WITH YOU. 

spent the night preceding His crucifixion in 
agonizing prayer, imploring strength from 
His Father for the morrow. How simple 
and concise, yet how pregnant with mean- 
ing, the narrative of Christ's habits of soli- 
tude; '^ And in the morning^ rising up a 
great ichile lefore day^ He went out and 
departed into a solitary place ^ and there 
prayedr How holy and instructive, and 
how melting the pathos of, this spectacle! 
Child of solitude ! whose social position, or 
whose mental idiosyncrasy, or whose refined 
and sensitive nature, or whose bodily infirm- 
ities separate you from your fellows, cloister 
you from the world, oh, deem not your path 
untrodden by your Lord! He walked it 
before you, and He will delight to come, and 
by the soothing of His love, and the suc- 
courings of His grace, and the manifestations 
of His glory re-tread again those foot prints 
He has left upon your shaded way, cheering 



CHRIST EVER WITH TOTT. 97 

and comforting you with His presence. Oh, 
you cannot be alone: alone with Christ! 
Blessed loneliness, hallowed solitude, shared 
and sweetened and sanctified by Jesus ! 
Around that sleepless pillow, by that couch 
of pain, in that room of stillness Christ's 
presence hovers. Holy the lessons He will 
now teach you, sweet the truths He will 
now unfold to you, soothing the words He 
will now speak to you, unutterable the bless- 
ings, into the experience of which He will 
now briijg your soul. It has pleased Him, 
perhaps, to deny you home and friends and 
means, thus severing and separating you 
from all but Himself. Be it so. He still is 
yours. In separation and solitude He will 
unfold to you the secret of His covenant, 
the secret of His love. And now your soul, 
unclasping her pinions, rises nearer to heaven, 
nearer to God. Disengaged from the world, 
severed from the creature, cut off from re- 
9 



98 CHKIST EVER WITH YOU. 

sources, Christ will have more of your heart, 
and YOU will have more of His, than ever. 
Solitude shared with His presence and 
sunned with His smile, supplies more imme- 
diately traced to His hand, will increase 
your knowledge of God, strengthen your 
drooping faith, deepen your personal holiness, 
give development, symmetry, and perfection 
to your entire Christian character; and, 
when you emerge from it, thus trained and 
disciplined, you will go forth to active duty, 
^^ds a hridegroom coining out of his chamher^ 
rejoicing as a strong man to run a raceP 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Many a soldier has gone back to his fond 
mother's instructions in his last moments. 
The last words have often been the j)rayers 
which a mother taught him. 



CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 99 



THE soldier's PRAYER. 

It was the evening after a great battle. 
All day long the din of strife had echoed far, 
and thickly strewn lay the shattered forms 
of those so lately erect and exultant in the 
flesh and strength of manhood. Among 
the many who bowed to the conqueror 
Death that night, was a youth in the first 
freshness of mature life. The strong limbs 
lay listless, and the dark hair was matted 
with gore on the pale broad forehead. His 
eyes were closed. As one who ministered to 
the sufferer bent over him, he at first thought 
him dead ; but the white lips moved, and 
slowly in weak tones he repeated, 

" Now I lay me down to sleep, 
I pray the Lord my soul to keep ; 
If I should die before I wake, 
I pray the Lord my soul to take ; 
And this I ask for Jesus' sake." 



100 CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 

As he finished he opened his eyes, and 
meeting the pitying gaze of a brother soldier, 
he exclained, ''My mother taught me that 
when I was a little boy, and I have said it 
every night since I can remember. Before 
the morning dawn I believe God will take 
my soul for ' Jesus ' sake ; ' but before I die, 
I want to send a message to my mother." 

He was carried to a temporary hospital, 
and a letter was written to his mother, which 
he dictated, full of Christian faith and filial 
love. He was calm and peaceful. Just 
as the sun arose, his spirit went home, his 
last articulate words being, 

" I pray the Lord my soul to take ; 
And this I ask for Jesus' sake.'* 

So died William B of the Massachu- 
setts volunteers. The prayer of childhood 
was the praj^er of manhood. He learned it 
at his mother's knee in his far distant 



CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 101 

northern home, and he whispered it in 
dying, when his young life ebbed away on 
a southern battle field. It was his nightly 
petition in life, and the angel who bore his 
spirit home to heaven, bore the sweet prayer 
his soul loved so well. 

God bless the saintly words, alike loved 
and repeated by high and low, rich and poor, 
wise and ignorant, old and young, only 
second to our Lord's prayer in beauty and 
simplicity. Happy the soul that can repeat 
it with the holy fervor of our'dying soldier. 



9* 



T 




CHAPTKR X. 

CHRIST m BEREAYEMENT. 

f/Ph HRIST is with you — in the hour 
of bereavement. He, too, drank of 
this cup. He offers you not a lieart 
unacquainted with your grief. He 
had much to do with death when on earth. 
He sympathized with its sorrow, awoke its 
slumbers, robbed it of its prey, became its 
Victim, and then its Victor. He has per- 
mitted this bereavement to visit you. Not 
without His will and His purpose of love, 
has He smitten you with this woe, visited 
you with this loss. Has your Heavenly 
Father written you a widow, an orphan, 
childless, friendless ? Has He removed the 



CHRIST EVER WITH TOTJ. 103 

joy of your heart, the light of your home, 
the hope of your family, the strong and 
beautiful staff upon which you leaned for 
support? Is your door darkened with the 
funeral that bears from its threshold all that 
was so fondly loved and precious? Oh, 
deem not yourself forsaken, desolate, and 
bereft ! Christ was never nearer to you than 
now. The Christ who bedewed the turf of 
Lazarus' grave with tears of bereaved affec- 
tion for the dead, and of sacred sympathy 
with the living, is spiritually at this moment 
by your side. He offers you a heart touched 
with your grief, throbbing with a love that 
more than compensates for the affection now 
cold in death ; an arm that shall be equal in 
its strength and support to your emergency; 
a shield that will encircle your person, your 
position, and your interests, infinitely more 
potent and safe than that which at one fell 
stroke God has laid low. Christ sensibly, 



104 CHKIST EVER WITH YOU. 

manifestly with you now, oh wish not to 
displace Him by recalling the treasure from 
which you have parted. It is recorded of 
the amiable and pious Fenelon, that in the 
eulogy he pronounced over the Dauphin, I 
his illustrious pupil and friend, as the corpse 
shrouded with the pall was placed in the] 
church before the pulpit, where, 

"Lovely in death, the beauteous ruin lay!" 

he uttered these words : " There lies the 
hope of his father ! the delight of his court ! 
the object of the nation's joyful anticipation ! 
But so convinced am I of his happy state, 
that, if the turning of a straw would bring 
him back, I would not turn that straw." 
Weeping mourner ! bereaved Christian ! in 
the bright sunshine of hope which bathes 
the coffined remains of "one so dear," read 
you this holy lesson of cheerful acquiescence 
with the will of your Father, and express 



CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 105 

yonr perfect satisfaction in the eternal hap- 
piness of the departed one now sweetly 
sleeping in Jesns, If the turning of a straw 
would recall him from the realms of glory, 
would you be willing to turn that straw? 
This new, deejDer, and darker sorrow shall 
brine: Jesus with it. Its ano:uish will be 
solaced by His love, its loneliness will be 
shared by His presence, its gloom will be 
brightened with His smile, its calamity will 
be sanctified by His grace, and all its new- 
born exigencies will be met by His boundless 
resources of wisdom, power, and love. '^Zo, 
/ am with you always 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Christ is specially with His people in 
bereavement. In the sad hour when the 
heart is full of desolation, His voice is heard 



106 CHRIST EVER WITH YOtT. 

saying, " Let not your heart be troubled." 
We may be despoiled of the heart's richest 
treasures, and yet Jesus may fill it with 
His richest consolations. 

"mother, I WANT TO SAY MY PRAYERS." 

A pious man, and a physician, said: "Yon 
will all remember that I was in this meeting 
a few days ago, and told you of my losing a 
little boy eight years old. Since I was last 
here, we have lost another still younger. 
The oldest was a child remarkable for his 
intelligence in the things of religion. He 
seemed to have a full comprehension of the 
way of salvation, through repentance to- 
wards God and faith in the Lord Jesus 
Christ. He had long expressed the hope 
that he might be a minister and a missionary 
of the Lord Jesus. To this work a father's 
and a mother's heart had consecrated our 
bright little boy, if it should please the Lord 



CHKIST EYEK WITH YOU. 107 

to spare him. But it was not so to be. In 
a most unexpected moment that cliild took 
his leave of us, rejoicing in the going, and 
soared away to be forever with Christ. For 
we could not doubt that the dear boy was a 
real Christian, made so by the washing of 
regeneration and renewing of the Holy 
Ghost. 

''The last child sickened with the same 
disease. His case was very painful, for he 
suffered intensely. It was evident very soon 
that death had marked him for his prey. 
We have always taught our children to 
pray, even before they could speak their 
words plainly. We have not been among 
those who believe that children can be saved 
otherwise than by the washing away of all 
corruption and moral defilement in the , 
blood of Christ. So we could teach them to 
pray in all sincerity, ' God be merciful to me 
a sinner.' We could teach them that they 



108 CHRIST EVER WITH YOIT. 

must never expect to go to heaven by reason 
of their own innocence ; bnt they must be 
saved by the blood of Christ. They must 
be sanctified by the Holy Spirit. They must 
be rendered meet for the inheritance of the 
saints in light. So we believed; so we 
prayed ; so we taught our children to 
pray. 

"When this little boy was in his death 
hour, he looked up, with a most wishful 
look, a pleading look, as if he feared he 
might be denied, and said : 

"'Mother! I want to say my prayers.' 
She knew the heart of her little boy, and 
immediately answered: 

" ' My dear child, you shall say your 
prayers.' 

" ' Not here,' said the little sufferer, 'but 
on my knees.' 

" He was lying on her lap. She raised 
him on his knees, when he clasped liis arms 



CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 109 

around her neck, and laying his head upon 
her shoulder, poured out his heart in prayer 
to God. He was so week and feeble that he 
could only say a word at a time. At length 
his prayers were finished, and he unclasped 
his little arms and fell back upon her lap. 
A smile of heavenly sweetness stole over his 
face, he drew a few inspirations — slow — 
slower — and he was gone. Oh!" said the 
pious father ; '^ the blood of Jesus, that 
cleanseth from all sin, never appeared so 
precious to me as it did then. I looked upon 
my dear little boy as one whom I might 
hope had been redeemed and saved through 
the merits of that blood. 

" I want to urge all fathers and mothers 
here, to consecrate their young children to 
Jesus. Teach them, oh ! teach them, to 
trust in Jesus Christ, to be saved by His 
blood." 



10 



CHAPTER XL 



CHRIST IN SICKNESS. 




HEIST is with you — in sickness, 
JS5]) There are some trials wln'ch in an 
especial manner bring Christ near to 
us. There is a secret in all sorrow, 
there is a deep one in this. To whom can 
the sufferer confide it? Tlie disease, perhaps, 
perplexes the judgment or bafiies the skill of 
the physician. The nervous irritability, the 
cerebral sensitiveness, the extreme weakness, 
the acute agony which renders the con- 
cussion of the gentlest footfall too powerful 
for the frame, may be but little understood 
by the most considerate, tender watchers at 
your side. They, perhaps, but little know 

(110) 



CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. Ill 

what heroic fortitude, what patient endur- 
ance of spirit lie concealed beneath all this 
uncomplaining suffering, what an incessant 
conflict is waging, and by what a super- 
human struggle the mastery is obtained of 
the mind over the body, and of God's grace 
over both. How difficult it is to suppress 
irritation, and how hard to express gratitude, 
when even the smile of love and the tear of 
compassion can awaken no responsive feel- 
ing, where all is pain, uneasiness, and 
despondency! But Christ is with you! You 
may not always be sensible of it. As the 
drapery of your bed and the deep shadows 
of your room may conceal from your view 
the nearness of a loved friend, so your 
physical infirmities may absorb all thought 
and consciousness but that of sufferins: and 
languor, depriving you of the sensible enjoy- 
ment of the Lord's presence. Notwith- 
standing, He is at your side, watching you 



112 CHEIST EYER WITH YOi:. 

with sleej)le3s love, succouring with His own 
grace the spiritual depression of your soul, 
and mitigating with His own power the 
anguish of vour bodilj sufferings. Think of 
the human and tender considerateness of 
Christ I He knows your fi-ame, and remem- 
bers that you are dust, and exacts and 
expects not from you more than you are 
capable of experiencing. Blessed sickness ! 
that leads the mind more fully into the 
conscious presence of Christ, that pillows the 
restless head upon His changeless love, that 
realizes the encircling of HIb arm of power 
beneath the sinking frame, that attunes the 
discordant will into sweeter and more perfect 
harmony with His, that gently moulds the 
soul to His own meek and patient spirit! 
Oh, holy lessons, precious truths, costly 
blessings learnt and experienced on a bed of 
sickness and of suffering ! And were this the 
only one, the clinging, soothing, sustaining 



CKRIST EVER WITH YOU. 113 

presence of Christ with the sick one He 
loves, it were enough. 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 

We will give one single example which 
illustrates the presence of Christ in sickness. 
We naight give many drawn from the scenes 
in hospital. The following is from a lady 
who has devoted all her energies and her 
very life in attending on suffering soldiers 
in Hospital : 

I very cheerfully comply with your request 
to write to the children of the Sabbath school. 
I would thank them for the books and tracts 
I have received through their generosity. 
I take great pleasure in distributing ihese, 
since I know how they have been furnished. 
I think they are doing a good work in two 
ways: First, I think they may be very 
10* 



114: CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 

useful here among tliese soldiers who are 
much in need of all the good influences that 
may be- brought around them ; and beside 
this, I think they are teaching the children 
at home to be unselfish, and to care kindly 
for the wants and interests of others. This 
alone I consider a great and good work, but 
1 hope this may be the little seed that will 
grow into a great and beautiful tree, to bud 
and blossom, and bear fruit for themselves 
and others, thoughout their whole lives. 

I would like to, relate some incidents which 
lately occurred here, showing what Chris- 
tianity will do for a man. 

On the 30th of last August, a great many 
wounded men were brought into Alexandria: 
so many that the hospitals were filled, and 
the wounded were lying crowded on the 
sidewalks about hospital doors. Among 
the rest was a Virginian, but a true hearted 
Union man. He was wounded very badly 



CHRIST ETER WITH YOIT. 115 

in the thigh, and suffered very much, so 
much so that he moaned and cried out 
continually. You will think every one felt 
sorry for him, but not so. All the other 
wounded men around him had just as much 
as they could do to bear their own pain, and 
they had no patience with this man who 
disturbed them night and day with his cries. 
They would frequently mock and make fun 
of him. T would sometimes ask them, for 
my sake, to forbear ; and I would go to him, 
and try to comfort him, so that he should 
not feel that every one was against him. 

But a better Comforter than .1 was there ; 
God's Holy Spirit was in his heart, and 
instead of feeling anger or annoyance at 
those who mocked him, he only prayed more 
earnestly that God would enable him to bear 
his pains with fortitude. This prayer was 
most surely answered, for he soon became 
one of the most patient and uncomplaining 



116 CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 

men in the whole hospital. A placid, 
gentle, submissive expression rested on his 
countenance, that was really most touching 
to behold. He never manifested the least 
unkindness towards those who made fun of 
him, but on the contrary, he was always 
anxious to share any delicacy he had with 
them, and would often ask me to send out 
and buy peaches and grapes for him "to 
give round to the boys," as he called them. 
He was often deranged at night, and would 
sing and pray most of the night; but they 
all felt so kindly to him noWj that this did 
not disturb .them, and they spoke of him as 
kindlj^ as if he had been a brother. When he 
knew there was no hope that he could live, 
I asked him whether he was willing to die, 
if it was God's will he should not recover. 
He answered, "Yes," with as pleasant and 
peaceful a smile as if I had asked him if he 
wanted to go home; and home I trust he 



CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 117 

has gone : to the dear heavenly home of his 
Father above, where His children shall ever 
rejoice in His love. After he died, I looked 
around to see if I could find any thing that 
I could send home to his sister, of whom he 
often spoke with great affection. I found a 
little book at the head of his bed that a kind 
Christian friend had given him. "Words 
of Jesus," was the title. I almost cried for 
joy when I thought how glad that sister 
would be to get this book, that had been 
such a treasury of comfort to her poor afflict- 
ed brother in his last moments. I enclosed 
a lock of his hair in a letter, and sent the 
little book, hoping and praying that these 
words of Jesus might be very precious 
words to her, comforting and sustaining her. 



A gentleman said he just came from 
Massachusetts, where he had gone at the 



118 CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 

request of a daughter, made when near 
heaven, that he would take her to her native 
place for burial. She died, said he, as we 
call it, a few days ago, in Philadelphia. Just 
before she died, she asked, "Father, is Jesus 
in the room ? " 

"Why do you ask, my daughter? I 
inquired," said the father. 

" Because it seems to me He is here," she 
replied. 

" And you love Him ? " 

"Yes;" just whispered with a sweet 
smile beaming on her face ; and in five 
minutes she was gone. I had not a doubt 
Jesus was in the room, and I delighted my- 
self in staying in that room to which the 
blessed Saviour had come to take His lovino^ 
and rejoicing disciple home. It was a place 
of all on earth most blest, 

" Quite on the verge of heaven." 




CHAPTER XII. 

CHRIST m TEMPTATION. 

5^^j%/ HEIST is witn you in — tempta- 
' tion. The hour of temptation in the 
believer's experience is one in which 
lie may especially and safely rely 
upon the nearness to him of the Lord. Tried 
Himself in this crucible, as none ever were. 
He is prepared by all the appliances of His 
power, all the restraints of His grace, and all 
the sympathy of His love, to succor and 
deliver them that are tempted. Tempted in 
all points as you are, He knows how to foil 
the adversary, to quench the dart, and to 
enable you, the single and the weak one, to 
put to flight ten thousand foes. Tempted 

(119 ) 



120 CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 

believer ! your faith, in the truth of the 
Bible, your confidence in the God of the 
Bible, your loyalty to the Saviour of the 
Bible, your acceptance of the salvation of 
the Bible, your comfort from the promises 
of the Bible, jouv enjoyment of the hope of 
the Bible, assailed and tampered with by 
Satan, fear not! Greater is He who is with 
you than they who are against you. ' ''The 
Lord hioweth how to deliver the godly &iit 
of temptation^ Take heart, then, tempted 
believer! you shall come forth from the 
fiery furnace, from this painful discipline, of 
which all the saints of God are partakers, 
with your faith more firmly grounded, your 
love more deeply rooted, your heart more 
thoroughly purified, your hope of glory more 
unclouded, and that Divine Intercessor for 
His tempted ones, all the more precious to 
your heart, who says, ''Satan hath desired to 
have you that he might sift you as wheat^ hut 



\ 



CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 121 

Ihave prayed for thee that thy faith fail 
not.^^ O thou Satan-tempted soul, "Z^?, / 
am with you alway! " 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Many a man has found his life a failure. 
He sought but never found what he seeks. 
All a man can desire may be found in Christ. 

One day after the leader had read the 
thirty-fourth Psalm, in which occurs this 
promise : " They that seek the Lord shall 
not want any good thing ; " as so3n as a 
proper opportunity occurred, a young man 
arose and said : 

"There was a time when the question of 
my salvation was just reduced to a matter 
of dollars and cents. The naked question 
was whether I could afford to become a 
Christian. I had been for a long time under 
11 



122 CHEIST EVER WITH YOU. 

conviction of sin. I knew I must perisli if 
I should die as I then was. I tliought I 
was anxious to be a Christian. I had been 
an ambitious youno: man, ambitious to be 
rich ; I had fair prosj)ects of becoming so. 
I saw at once I must make great sacrifices 
if I became a Christian. I must give up all 
my cherished plans and schemes. Giving 
up all these, I knew not how much more 
was involved. I saw that I might be poor 
all my days, instead of being rich, and how 
poor was more than I could tell. The ad- 
versary assailed me just in this way. 

" Tou are doing very right to give atten- 
tion to the subject of religion. It is a very 
important subject. But you are doing very 
wrong to make the sacrifice you must to 
become a Christian ; it is unreasonable. 
Tou cannot afi'ord it. 1S<0 one has a right 
to throw away his blessings, health is a 
blessing, and you are discussing the question 



CHRIST EVER WITH YOTT. 123 

of being poor all your days, when you have 
every advantage for becoming rich. Be 
religious if you will, but by all means be 
rich ; and tlien with a contented mind you 
can afford to be religious. 

"At the same time the words of Jesus 
rung in my ears and knocked at my heart : 
^He that will not forsake all that he hath 
cannot be my disciple.' ' If any man will 
come after me, let him deny himself and 
take up his cross and follow me.' 'How 
hardly shall they that have riches enter 
into the kingdom of heaven.' 

"The devil said, you do not quote the 
Scriptures correctly. It is hard for tliem 
who trust in riches to enter into the kingdom 
of heaven. You can have riches and not 
inrust in them. You are not called to make 
a beggar of yourself all your life long in 
order to go to heaven. This would be very 
unreasonable; and you are never required 



124: CKRIST EVER WITH YOF. 

to do any thing unreasonahle to get to liea- 
ven. Be religious if yon will, but by all 
means be reasonable. Do not make a fool 
of yonrself and in your folly throw your 
blessings away from you. 

''I know that Christ required me to give 
up all for him. I knew that I could not 
have my own way in the matter of salvation. 
There I hung, just on that hinge; balancing 
the question whether I would be rich and be 
without salvation, or whether I would be 
poor and have salvation. 

"It was a dreadful struggle, and Satan 
helped me into trouble all he could and 
made it seem hard. I thought I was willing 
to give up all dishonest and wrong ways of 
getting riches. But why should I be called 
upon to give up honest ways of seeking 
and obtaining the good things of this world 
for the sake of Christ ? That was the point 
of the struggle. 



CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 125 

"It was when I was in just that state of 
perplexity that my eyes fastened upon that 
tenth verse of the thirty-fourth Psalm : 
'They that seek the Zord shall not want 
any good tiling^ I said to myself, what 
more do I want than that? What more 
could be promised ? Here is something 
more and something better than uncertain 
riches — uncertain about gaining them — 
uncertain about retaining them after all. 
But if I seek the Lord 1 shall not want any 
good thing. 

"1 needed just that passage at that time, 
and God by his Spirit helped me to believe 
in his faithfulness to fulfil his own word. 
On that text, as on a hinge, my heart turned 
to seek the Lord, and I gave up cheerfully 
all my fancied wealth for the sake of a sav- 
ing interest in the Lord Jesus Christ. The 
load of guilt was gone, and I felt that I had 
salvation through the blood of the Lamb. 
11* 



126 CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 

The struggle was over, and my peace flow- 
ed as a river. 

" Some unconverted, awakened sinner 
here may ask me, 'How about that promise?' 
1 will answer. When my heart began to 
trust God I forgot all about the promise. 
I had all my heart desired in Jesus Christ. 
But God did not forget that promise though 
I did. Of this world's goods I have had 
all I could have asked and even more. But 
best of all, / have heen made alive unto 
Christ forever, I am going home to die no 
more. For me it is not death to die. I 
thank God for that thirty-fourth Psalm ; it 
led me to trust God through Jesus Christ." 

" Oh make but trial of his love, 
Experience will decide 
How blest are they, and only they, 
Who in his love confide." 



CHAPTER XIII. 



CKRIST IN ADVERSITY. 



' N the temporal calamities and adver- 
sities of this life, the vicissitudes of 
' commerce, the depression of trade, the 
pressure of want, it is equally our 
privilege to plead in prayer and faith this 
appropriate and precious promise of the 
Saviour,* and invoke His interposition, 
succor, and aid. Our Lord, when on earth, 
never showed Himself indifferent to the 
temporal necessities of man. We read that 
He had compassion on the multitude because 
they had nothing to eat, and in the exercise 
of His sympathy, and in the interposition of 
His power, fed thousands with bread. He 

(127) 



128 CHRIST EYER WITH YOIT. 

is still the same. Have your commercial 
transactions met with a reverse? your 
enterprises with an untoward and unlocked 
for check? Are you actually under the 
pressure of want ? your wife and your little 
ones crying for bread? Go in prayer, my 
brother, and plead in childlike faith this 
gracious promise of Jesus — ^^Lo^ I am with 
you alway^^ and you shall not plead in vain. 
Ah yes! He has sent. He has permitted this 
calamity but to show you how near He is to 
you, how He will, as of old, tenderly com- 
passionate your need, and then, in the 
boundlessness of His divine resources, 
abundantly supply it. See Christ, and 
Christ only, in your present distress. Bow 
uncomplainingly, cheerfully, to His will. 
Lean confidingly, unwaveringly, upon His 
arm. Trust His goodness, faithfulness, and 
power. And, oh, if this temporal calamity, 
this worldly sorrow, but draw your soul to 



CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 129 

Christ, if now you are aroused to prayer, are 
led to turn to God, to seek spiritual blessing, 
the "bread of life," without which you 
perish, the " true riches " of grace on earth 
and of glory in heaven, through eternity you 
will praise the Saviour for the overwhelming 
calamity which saved your soul as by fire. 
Turn you now, amid crushed hopes, wrecked 
fortune, the biting and the cries of want, to 
Him whose providence can cause the barrel 
of meal and the cruse of oil not utterly to 
fail, and whose grace can so sanctify your 
affliction and chasten your sorrow as to make 
this present adversity the sweetest, holiest, 
costliest blessing of your life. 

Yes! Christ is with you alway, all days; 
in the inexperience and temptations of your 
youth, to counsel and keep you; in the cares 
and anxieties of manhood, to sustain and 
soothe you ; and in the feebleness, infirmity, 
and loneliness of old age, to be your stafi' and 



130 CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 

comfort. Christ is with yon in widowhood, 
to vindicate joiir rights and cheer your 
desolation ; in your lone orphanage, to be to 
you as a father and a friend ; and in all the 
adversities and vicissitudes of life, its chang- 
ing scenes and dying friends; in the total 
absence of the kind sympathy for which you 
yearn, the affection for which you pant, the 
counsel and protection which you need, 
Christ will in your experience make good to 
the letter His precious promise, ''Zo, lam 
with youP Oh ! to have His presence with 
you in these circumstances, you can well 
afford to part with all others. 

You are, perhaps, anticipating a trial, and 
like the disciples in the transfiguration, you 
fear as you enter into the cloud, the por- 
tentous shadow of winch is darking and 
closing around you. But how groundless 
were their fears ! and equally so are yours. 
Christ was with them in the cloud, and a 



CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 131 

Father's voice issued from its bosom. Nev,er 
were they more honored or more safe. The 
same Christ, the same almighty, loving 
Friend is with you in the cloud which now 
you so much dread. Oh, trust your tremb- 
ling soul to Him ! Is it the heart's Wrench 
you fear? Is it mental despondency you 
dread? Is it bodily suffering from which 
you shrink ? Is it temporal loss you antici- 
pate ? ^^I am with you alway^'' is the 
soothing, assuring promise with which Jrsus 
would have you meet it. He will strengthen, 
sustain, soothe, and comfort you with His 
blissful presence at the moment of the trial. 
Trust Him now? He never yet belied 
Himself, never broke this precious promise 
in a solitary instance. ''As thy day^ so shall 
thy strength heP "As thy dajM " His 
presence will dissipate the gloom, quell the 
fear, hush tlie murmur, deaden the suffering, 
and thus encircled by His arms, He will 



132 CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 

bear you through it, to the eternal praise 
and glorj of His name. Friend of sinners! 
Lord of saints ! my trembling spirit shrinks, 
I fear as I enter into this cloud ! Be Thou 
sensibly near. Let me feel Thy hand, hear 
Thy voice, realize Tliy presence, then shall 
I fear no evil, for Thou art with me. Thy rod 
and Thy staff will support and comfort me. 
"Z(9, I am with you ; I will he with you. 
Fear notP Enough, my gracious Lord ! 
I will now enter into the cloud ; I will gird 
me for the trial, and, supported by Thy 
grace, and soothed by Thy love, will glorify 
Thee in the fire. 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 

In all our distresses and adversity Christ 
is ever with us. The following is an ex- 
ample drawn from humble life : 

In the Fulton Street Prayer Meeting a 



CHRIST EYER WITH YOU. 133 

few days since, a pleasant and venerable- 
looking stranger, arose and said, "While 
walking up Broadway yesterday, having lost 
my spectacles, I looked around to see where 
I could purchase a new pair. Finding a 
stand near, I stopped to select a pair. 
IsToticing that the dealer was an intelligent 
man, who had evidently seen better days, I 
entered into conversation with him. 

" ^How long have you been engaged in 
this business, sir? ' 

" ' Only a short time, sir. I have not 
always been so poor. I formerly lived in 
Charleston, South Carolina, and was in good 
circumstances, but myself and family were 
compelled to fly to save our lives. We 
barely succeeded in getting on board of a 
vessel about sailing for New York, and 
secreting ourselves in the hold. We had no 
time to save any thing, not even money 
enough to pay our passage.' 
12 



134 CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 

" ^But how have you lived since yon came 
here ? You cannot make enough at this 
business to support your wife and children?' 

" ' God has cared for us thus far, sir. We 
had no money to pay rent, but we found a 
cellar up-town that we get for nothing, and 
my wife and I make enough to keep us in 
food and clothing. AVe are very thankful, 
very thankful to God, sir, that we came 
here.' 

" ^ How, sir, can you be thankful that 
you were compelled to give up all your 
property, leave a pleasant home, and live in 
a cellar?' 

"'Oh, sir, it is because we have found 
Jesus Christ since we came here, or rather, 
He has found us^ and we are more happy 
and content than when we lived in our 
pleasant southern home ; for though we do 
live in a cellar, Jesus Christ is with us.^ " 



CHAPTEE XIY. 



CHRIST IN DEATH. 




HEIST IS with you — in the hour 
and article of death. Never did a 
believer in Jesus die alone ! Alone 
he may be as to all human aid and 
Christian sympathy. But he cannot be 
really and actually alone ; for, if ever Christ 
fulfills this exceeding great and precious 
promise: '^ I ar)i with you alway^'' it is when 
His blood-bought, ransomed saint enters and 
passes through the shaded valley^. He is 
with you to speak the promises, to mete out 
the grace, to stifle fear, to repel the tempter, 
to apply the blood, to strengthen faith, and 
to waken the echoes of the silent valley with 

C186) 



136 CHRIST ETEE W ITH YOTJ. 

the music of His voice : ''/ am with you.^^ 
'' Amid the prostration of earthly hopes, 
when unable to glance one thought on a 
dark future, when the stricken spirit, like a 
wounded bird, lies struggling in the dust, 
with broken wing and wailing cry, longing 
for pinions to fly away from a weaiy world 
to the rest and quiet of the grave ; in that 
hour of earthly dissolution, He who has the 
keys of death at His girdle, nay, who has 
tasted death Himself, and better still, who 
hath conquered it, draws near in touching 
tenderness, saying, ' Lo, I am with you. I 
am with you to cheer ycu, to comfort you, 
to support and sustain you. I, wlio once 
wept at a grave, am here to weep with you ; I 
will be at your side in all that try ing future ; 
I will make my grace sufficient for you, and 
my promises precious to you, and my love 
better than all earthly aflection. Tlie one is 
changeable : the one must perish ; I am the 
12* 



CHRIST EYER WITH YOTT. *137 

strength of your heart and your portion for 
ever.' " Blessed Lord ! 

"Abide with me from morn till eve, 
For without Thee I cannot live ; 
Abide with me when death is nigh, 
For without Thee I cannot die." 

Oh ! seek much, living and dying, of the 
sensible presence of Christ. Let this be the 
grand, essential character of your religion : 
a religion, the essence, the sunshine of which 
is, the conscious presence with you ever of 
Jesus. Walk daily at His side. Cultivate 
confidential transactions with Him. Suffer 
no sin to grieve Him, no distrust to wound 
Him, no coldness, shyness, or distance of 
fellowship to lessen one throb, to suppress 
one desire, to congeal one current, or to pre- 
vent one act of your love. As His disciple 
and follower, separate yourself from the 
world, and bear His cross after Him boldly 



139 CHRIST EVER AVITH YOU. 

and uncomj)i*omisinglj, yet meekly and 
heroically. Be liappy in all His dealings 
^vitli you ; all that He sends or withholds, 
gives or removes ; for He hath said, '^Z will 
7iever leave thee^ nor forsake th^e^ No ! He 
will be with you until He brings you home 
to glory. Precious presence of Christ on 
earth ! it is the dawn of glory, the earnest 
of heaven, the foretaste of celestial bliss, the 
fii'st-fruits of the golden harvest of eternity ! 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 

The writer knew the parents and grand- 
parents of this dear young man, among his 
personal friends. The happiness of this de- 
voted Christian youth might be expected 
from his life. Christ was with him in the 
dying hour. 

Among the many noble young men who 



CHRIST EYER WITH YOU. 139 

have given their lives for the cause of human 
iii4ependence5 we may class Jasper Stone 
Laughlin, who died in the twenty-third year 
of his age, at the West End Military Hos- 
pital, Cincinnati, Ohio, May 16th, 1862, He 
was an only son, born in McConnellsville, 
Ohio, of pious parents, where he spent nearly 
all his life, with his mother and sister ; his 
father, who was a Ruling Elder in the Pres- 
byterian Church, having died when Jasper 
was yet a child. It may trulj^ be said of liim 
that ''None knew him but to love him." 
In the summer of 1858, he stood up for 
Jesus, and united with the Presbyterian 
Church. Such was his Christian deport- 
ment, that in 1861 he was elected and 
ordained a Puling Elder in tlie same Church 
in which his father lived and died. His 
place was never vacant^ when at home, in 
the Sabbath school, the prayer meeting, the 
public gatherings of God's people. 



140 CHRIST EVER WITH YOTJ. 

In the fall of 1861, under a deep sense of 
duty to his country and his God, after 
prayerfully considering the whole matter, 
and obtaining the consent of his widowed 
mother, he volunteered under Captain T. M. 
Stevenson, Seventy-eighth Regiment O. Y. I., 
Colonel Leggett. He carried his religion 
with him. His Bible and Hymn Book 
were his daily companions. His captain in 
writing about him, since his death, says : 
"He was beloved by every one of his 
regiment. His conduct was so lofty and 
noble, his life so spiritual and heavenly 
minded, that the greatest despisers of religion 
were cowed before his very appearance. 
Once he said, 'I never before felt the power 
and importance of religion as I do here. Cut 
off from home and the public means of 
grace, I feel the necessity of leaning upon 
the Saviour, and committing myself entirely 
to a kind and good providence.' " 



CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 141 

His regiment was at the surrender of 
Fort Donelson, and in the battle of Shiloh 
during the second day. After having passed 
through that fearful struggle, and enduring 
many hardships, he was found to be failing in 
health; so much so, that Capt, Stevenson 
determined to send him home. When the 
hope was held up before him that he would 
soon be conveyed to his mother and sisters, 
he replied : " I am going to a far better home 
than any on earth. Tell my mother and 
sisters that I die happy. I am entering the 
upper kingdom only a few days before them. 
They rejoiced when I came into the lower 
kingdom, how much more should they re- 
joice to have me enter the upper kingdom. 
Tell them to sing^ Joyfully' when they hear 
of my high promotion from the army, and 
the high service of my country, to the bright 
climes of bliss!" After he was placed on 
the boat at Pittsburgh Landing, May 7th, 



142 CHUIST EVER WITH TOTJ. 



41 



lie seemed to rally, and expressed himself 
as being quite comfortable. On the evening 
of the 9th, however, he felt that he was 
drawing near his ''time to die," and being 
asked })j his attending physician if he had 
any message to send to his friends, he dic- 
tated the following letter : 

"Dear Mother and Sisters: I am just 
entering the glorious portals of eternity! 
Jesus has not yet made his appearance, but 
J Icnow that He will. Do not regret that 
you permitted me to volunteer. The happi- 
ness of the present moment makes up for 
all the suffering I ever endured. I soon 
expect to see dear father, grand-parents, and 
above all, Jestts ! One of the greatest objects 
of my gratitude is, that God has granted me 
the privilege of sending you this message 
from the chambers of glory. I never en- 
joyed myself so much as while in the army. 
You ought to be proud that you have a son 



CHRIST EVER WITH YOU. 143 

to fall in so glorious a cause as that of human 
independence. Tell our Church to be faith- 
ful unto the end, and get the glorious crown 
of life. Tell my dear pastor to continue in 
his faithful labors : that I know the blessing 
of God will follow them. Thank Mr. 
Chambers, the Baptist minister, for the 
interest he took in me at the good old Union 
Prayer Meetings. 

* Joyfully, joyfully, onward we move ' — 

will be sung by me in nobler strains, in a 
short time, and 

* Nearer, my God, to thee, 

Nearer to thee : 
Ev'n though it be a cross 

That raiseth me, 
Still all my song shall be, 

Nearer, my God to thee, 
Nearer to thee — I would be, and still 
nearer to thee.' " 



144 CHRIST EVER WITH YOIT. 

He was conveyed to the West End Mili- 
tary Hospital in Cincinnati, where he was 
brought under the kind care of relatives and 
friends. Dr. Dodge, who, spent much time 
with him, in a letter says: 

" He was perfectly rational as long as he 
had strength to articulate. Realizing fully 
that his work on earth was done, he departed 
with a confident assurance of meeting the 
Saviour. The memory of his example and 
faith in tlie Saviour will never be efi'aced 
from the minds of scores of sympathizing 
friends." 

His remains were brought home, and 
interred by the side of his father. 

" Soldier of Christ, well done : 
Praise be thy new employ : 
And, while eternal ages run, 
Best in thj Saviour's joy." 



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